


Silence and Song

by RavenRunning



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 20:56:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 38,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6675184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenRunning/pseuds/RavenRunning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After two years of unexplained delay, Holly Hawk finally receives her Hogwarts letter and is thrust into a world she had only dreamed of. Follow Holly, accompanied by her friend Keira, as she tries to navigate the halls of Hogwarts. A challenge made all the more difficult by her mysterious vow of silence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Thunder clapped overhead, making the roof of the Leaky Cauldron creak and moan. Harry’s eyes snapped open. Even though the storm overhead was roaring fiercely, it hadn’t been what had woken him. The boy lay still, listening. He didn’t hear anything above the sound of the storm so he lay back onto his pillows. But as soon as Harry felt himself drifting off, his eyes sprang open. There it was again!… A soft thump. He lay still, trying to locate the source of the sound. Again it did not repeat itself, but this time he couldn’t get back to sleep. His mind began wandering back to the events of the past few days.

Harry had been at the Dursley’s, anticipating his third year at Hogwarts. And he had been doing quite well actually, until Aunt Marge got blown up. But the Minister had said that that was all fine and he wouldn’t be punished.  Harry had then left the Dursley’s, almost gotten attacked by a giant black dog, picked up by the Knight Bus and then safely lodged in the Leaky Cauldron, courtesy of the Minister for Magic himself.

The memories were still a little fuzzy so Harry tried counting ceiling tiles, since the Inn’s sheep were off getting sheared. The black haired boy felt a little sad, he liked those miniature sheep. He missed them. One of them, he had named Wooly, always hopped onto his chest and just sat there, like a cat. It seemed to Harry that Wooly was guarding him because whenever he had woken up, the little sheep would be cuddled against the door.

Thump! Harry’s mind snapped back to reality. The ceiling tile he had been in the middle of counting had just thumped! _Something’s on the roof_! the boy thought as he sat up. Another fact came to Harry’s attention: the rain had stopped. The wind, however, was still buffeting against the window, making the glass rattle _. Whoever’s up there is stupid, stuck, or spying_ , thought Harry.

He got out of bed and went over to the window. The sill outside was drenched with water. Harry silently thanked himself for buying those waterproof slippers yesterday, and quickly slipped them on. He opened the window and stepped out onto the sill. There was a slanted ledge leading up to the roof, streaming water down to the deserted street below. Walking up the sides of the trough, Harry reached up and pulled himself onto the roof. As his head crested the tiles, he was greeted by a screech and a mouth full of feathers. Harry’s hands clenched hard onto the board held in their grasp so as not to fall. By the time he had recovered, the owl had flown away with an indignant hoot and a bare chest.

Harry spat out the remaining feathers and looked around. His mouth fell open at what he saw. There, standing barefoot in a puddle of water, was a girl. Her robes were much too small for her and she looked like she hadn’t had a decent meal in a while. Harry figured she was about his age and she had the same jet black hair. The girl was reading a letter, which must have been just delivered because it was dry. She hadn’t noticed him yet because all of her attention was focused on the papers in her hands. Harry recognized the Hogwarts crest on the envelope. Just then, the girl looked up. There was an expression of pure joy on her face. Their eyes met. The girl’s expression of happiness suddenly changed to one of terror. Harry opened his mouth to tell her he didn’t mean any harm. But before he could say anything, she ran to the edge of the roof and jumped out into the empty air.

Harry’s stomach did somersaults. The street was at least twenty feet below them! He ran to the edge and looked down, letting out a gasp when his eyes found her again. The girl had jumped from the roof of the Leaky Cauldron to a ledge sticking out of the building across the street. As he watched, she ran along the ledge to a drain pipe and then, light as a feather, scaled the pipe up to the roof and sped across it. She jumped the space between the two buildings and, as she landed, did a somersault and stopped. The girl turned around and looked back at Harry. When she saw the shocked expression on his face, she smiled and, still clutching her letter, disappeared behind a chimney and was gone.

 _Wow!_ Was all Harry could think, _wow!_


	2. The Delivery Girl

Holly Hawk was out of breath and sweating.

_Almost there_ , she thought as she swung from a sign onto a ledge on the building opposite.

The shock from earlier this morning was wearing off, as was her adrenaline. Jumping down from a chimney stack, she rolled across a roof and slid down a drainpipe. Her feet landed on the cobblestones next to a shop window full of shrunken heads and giant dead spiders. Holly shivered as she took in the familiar sight. She hated Knockturn Alley, but this was the only place where she could find a home. _Home_ , Holly sighed as she looked at the small, abandoned shop _, it’s definitely not home_ , she thought.

“Hey!” a nasally voice suddenly broke the silence of the early morning, “Delivery girl!”

Holly stiffened and quickly spun around. She was greeted by Mr. Borgin, the owner of Borgin and Burkes, a store that sold a variety of dark magical objects. He was standing in the doorway of said shop, four doors down from where Holly presently stood. When Borgin saw that he had her attention, he quickly shuffled towards her.

“You’re late! Do you have what I need?” he asked, his fingers weaving around each other like long legged spiders.

Holly nodded and dug through her pockets, taking out a small box and a note. She held them out and Borgin quickly snatched them away.

“Excellent!” he cackled, then handed her a small purse, “I think you’ll find three sickles and two galleons in there, just as we agreed.”  
Holly’s fist clenched around the bag and her eyes flashed.

_We agreed to three galleons and five sickles!_ She thought angrily, raising her fist and shaking it in the man’s face.

“Well, bye now,” Borgin simply leered at her and cackled as he returned to his shop.

Holly stood there fuming for a few moments before letting out a sigh and shrugging.

_Well, this’ll feed us for a few nights,_ she thought as she turned the handle of the door in front of her, _That damn Borgin! He always cheats me. I should stop doing deliveries for him. Especially since he always wants me to do them at night… but I need the money._

Holly didn’t really mind being out and about in the back alleys of wizarding London at night, she was used to it after seven years of living in them. But she didn’t much care for the other people who were lurking around at such hours. Tonight’s delivery had been from Borgin to a man staying at the Leaky Cauldron. Holly had taken the letter Borgin had given her to its recipient without much trouble. But her return had been delayed due to the storm.

_And then being harassed by that owl_ , she thought as she wrung out her hair, _How was I supposed to know it’s letters were for me?_

She absentmindedly fingered the two bands that hung around her neck as she entered the building she called home. Most of the windows were boarded up, leaving the inner room quite dark. The floorboards were bare except for a heavily worn rug and some holey sheets placed on the only part of the floor that was dry. A shoddy cauldron sat in one corner next to a small shelf covered in various bottles and jars. Holly looked around her room and brushed her long black hair out of her eyes. _Looks as welcoming as ever_ , she sighed. Her necklace rustled and she reached up to take it off.

She pulled the two bands out from under her robes. A silver chain and a brown chord were revealed. The silver necklace had two pendants on it. The first was a solid silver coin, the design of a dragon and a skinny looking hound were facing off with each other with their front legs raised had been etched deeply into the coins face. The second charm was pale blue jewel, cut in the shape of a teardrop and clasped with a gold bell-cap. Holly’s fingers wove around these pendants before her hand moved up the chain to unclasp it. The chain, however, wasn’t a chain at all. It was a slim, silver dragon decorated with little etched scales. Its wings folded tightly around its body to allow for the charms to slide on and off easily and it had its tail in its mouth to form the clasp. Holly reached down and patted the dragon’s tiny head with her finger, causing the jaws to open. She stretched out the dragon and slid off the coin and jewel pendants. The moment they were both off and into the pouch that Holly also kept around her neck on the brown chord, the dragon blinked, stretched its wings and neck then sat staring at Holly.

_Hello, Keira_ , the girl thought as she smiled.

The dragon purred and flipped over to lie on her back, clacking her jaws happily while Holly scratched her tummy.

_So what did you think if our little surprise today?_ the raven haired girl asked _, It was a bit of a shock seeing Harry Potter with our own eyes wasn’t it? And getting that letter?! Looks like my dreams are finally coming true!_

Keira let out an excited little roar. The sound filled the room, sounding like pebbles bouncing across the floor.

Holly sighed dreamily.

_Hogwarts! I can’t believe it! I thought they’d forgotten about me. I am thirteen after all, so I’m supposed to be in third year_ , the girl sat back and let her eyes move over the spots of sky that could be seen through the holes in the ceiling, _The letter said they couldn’t locate me to give me my letter… which is strange because I haven’t gone anywhere_.

The dragon crawled up into her lap and cocked a scaly eyebrow.

_I know it’s not fake! How could you think that, Keira? Look, the crest is right there!_

She took the letter out of her pocket and held it up. The silver critter hung her head and scuttled off into a corner.

_Oh Keira, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound mean_ , Holly rushed over and scooped up the little dragon, _I love you, and you know that._

Keira nipped at the pouch containing her pendants.

_Yes_ , Holly smiled, _You keep my charms safe. You’re the only one I trust, my only true friend_.

Keira chirped happily, then quietly closed her eyes and fell asleep, purring softly.

Holly stood there, rocking gently. Her gaze resting on the little brown pouch that hung around her neck. She found herself thinking back to when she had lived with Tom and Lila, her adoptive parents. The elderly couple used to tell her the story of how they had come to care for her every year on her birthday. How they had left their house one morning to find her under a willow tree by their driveway, wrapped up tightly, with the two charms tucked into her blankets.

Holly touched the pouch around her neck and willed herself not to start crying. She had loved Tom and Lila very much. Her memories rushed up to the front of her mind and her eyes became moist.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

_Lila smiled warmly as she walked into the dining room. The old woman was almost bent double, but her hands were steady as she carried a tray bearing a cake in and set it on the table. Lila’s twinkling blue eyes, surrounded by happy wrinkles, gazed warmly at Tom as he chided Holly for being fidgety. The little girl wiggled eagerly in her seat as the cake was presented to her. It was shaped like a heart and had six candles in it. That’s right, it was her sixth birthday. After they had eaten their fill, Tom had hobbled into the living room, leaning heavily on his cane while motioning for her to follow him. The little girl sat patiently on his knee as he presented her with a gift-wrapped box, winking and telling her not to open it until morning and laughing when Holly gave him a pout. Then a sharp knock broke the cozy silence inside the house. Tom frowned and scooted Holly off his knee before standing up and going to answer the door._

_“Go upstairs, kid,” Tom’s voice became uncharacteristically serious, “We’ll be up in a minute to tell you a story. Stay there and stay quiet like a good girl… no matter what happens, okay? Not a word, not a peep, you hear?”_

_Holly nodded and ran upstairs, but remained sitting on the top step. She looked over the box she still held in her hands and waited for her adoptive parents to join her. But then she heard Tom call Lila and she frowned; Tom’s voice had sounded funny. Then all she could hear was screaming. Green light flashed up from the bottom of the stairs and explosions shook the walls. Holly wanted to scream out and run, but her mouth wouldn’t open. Tom had told her to stay quiet and to stay upstairs. She bolted towards a cupboard standing in the upstairs hall and hid herself inside, clinging to her present and trying not to scream as tears rolled down her face. Silence fell and then footsteps and strange whispering sounds moved through the house. But Holly kept her mouth shut, not letting so much as a whimper escape her. Eventually, whatever was in the house left, the door closed with a bang, and Holly was left in the dark. Not wanting to make Tom angry, she stayed upstairs, keeping herself hidden in the cupboard and letting the silent tears fall onto her present._

_Holly woke up the next morning and ran outside, crying and screaming because she’d seen the bodies of her adoptive parents in the doorway. She ran out to the willow tree where Tom and Lila had found her and sat there crying and crying. She stayed there for a long time, not knowing what to do, and then she remembered Tom’s present. She opened it right then and there. It was a necklace chain shaped like a dragon. As the morning light touched it, the silver dragon came alive. It stretched its wings and flew in circles around her head and, for the moment, the nightmarish events that had just befallen her were pushed out of her thoughts. All the memories came flooding back, however, when Holly read the note that was at the bottom of the box:_

_We hope you like her, kid. Her named is Keira._

_She’ll carry your charms for you._

_Love, Tom and Lila_

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Holly’s eyes snapped open. She was back in Knockturn Alley; Keira was snoring softly on her lap and water was dripping onto her face from the ceiling. She’d had the dream again. As tears rolled down her cheeks and she started to shake, Keira woke up and began licking her face.

Ever since that day, for seven years, Holly hadn’t spoken a word to anyone. Tom had told her to stay quiet, like a good girl, and that’s what she was going to do. The only times she would allow herself to make a sound would be the rare moments when it became too painful to hold everything inside and she had to let some of it out. Her clients didn’t mind her silence. All they wanted was for her to do something that they didn’t have the time for, or didn’t want to be seen doing. They didn’t even care if she human or not.

_Except Ollivander_ , Holly wiped her eyes, trying to stay the flood, _he’s the only person who takes even the slightest interest in my wellbeing._

The old wandmaker was the only one whom Holly felt comfortable around. He had become a sort of friend to her, acting as a guardian at some moments and a mentor at others. But right now, Holly was alone… alone with her memories.

_That was too much Keira,_ thought Holly, _too much remembering._

Holly surrendered to the sorrow and cried herself back to sleep.


	3. The Wand Maker

“No, really,” said Harry, “She actually jumped across the street, climbed up a pipe and landed with a summersault!”

The Boy Who Lived was sitting at the ice cream shop in Diagon Alley. It was a beautiful day, which was made even better by the presence of his two best friends, Ron and Hermione.

“You said she had a Hogwarts letter?” Hermione asked as she scooped a spoonful of ice cream from her parfait, “Well then I can expect we’ll see her at Hogwarts this year.”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded, “But she looked a little old to be a first year.”

“Well then maybe she stole it,” Ron spluttered through a mouthful of his chocolate and pumpkin sundae, “After all, Harry, you said she looked like a street kid so…”

“Ron!” exclaimed Hermione, “How thick are you! Even “street kids” have to go to Hogwarts. Dumbledore would make sure of it.”

“Maybe she isn’t a witch,” said Harry, not wanting his friends to start bickering, “I mean what if she’s a muggle and just found the letter.”

“Harry,” Hermione sighed, “You said you saw her in Diagon Alley, which means she has to be magical because muggles can’t get into Diagon Alley. And you saw an owl flying away from her -”

“I didn’t only see that owl,” muttered Harry.

Ron started laughing.

“Anyway,” continued Hermione, casting exasperated looks at the both of them, “You saw an owl. So the letter had probably just been delivered to her when you showed up.”

The three friends then drifted into a thoughtful silence, wondering who this mystery girl could be. Suddenly Harry blinked and jumped to his feet, pointing into the crowded alley next to them.

“Hey, that’s her!” he exclaimed, “There! No, over there! Going into Ollivander’s.”

And sure enough, as they looked towards the old wand shop, they caught sight of a girl with long, wavy black hair, a fair face and pale skin.

“Come on, let’s go,” said Harry.

They all got up and made their way over to Ollivander’s wand shop.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Holly leaned against the door of the wand shop as she closed it behind her. She usually stayed away from Diagon Alley during the first week of September and wasn’t used to being so crowded. Taking a breath to steady her beating heart, she walked up to the cluttered counter and dinged the little bell three times in a row, paused, then hit the bell a fourth time. From deep within the towering shelves of wand boxes a voice called,

“Come in Miss Hawk, I’ve been waiting for you.”

Holly walked past the desk and into the depths of the shop. She had always like the atmosphere of this particular store the best. It was mysterious, ancient, and filled with magic. It just seemed to draw her. When she’d first arrived in Diagon Alley, on many a rainy night she’d come in and just sit on that spindly legged chair by the door. After the first few of these incidents, Ollivander had started to befriend her. _That was a long time ago_ , thought Holly, _I was only seven._

She weaved through the stacks of wand boxes and reached the centre cross-section of all the corridors of the wand shop. It was in this big, circular area that Ollivander could be found when not at the front desk. This time, she found him busy cataloguing the type of wood of some wands.

“Ah, Miss Hawk,” he said as she came closer, “Just finishing up. You did a wonderful job cleaning up last time. I still can’t find my tape measure.”

Holly smiled. She often helped the wand maker clean up his shop, and he had a habit of not finding things that she put away. She sighed, walked over to the desk, pulling open the third drawer and producing the tape measure.

“Ah,” Ollivander tutted as she handed it to him, “The one place I never look.”

Holly gave him a sweet smile, then her face grew serious and she gave a small nod.

“Yes,” he said, “You would like to know why I was expecting you? Well, as a matter of fact, I got a letter from the Headmaster of Hogwarts the other day…” he gave her a sidelong glance as he put away some wands.

Since they had known each other for so long, Ollivander was particularly good at communicating with the silent girl.

Holly almost shook with excitement as she took out her Hogwarts letters and held them out to the wand maker. His eyes lit up as he saw them.

“Oh, my dear!” he almost whispered, “Congratulations, I see he finally found you.”

Holly gave him a proud look, which turned to one of curiosity as she realized that he seemed to know something she didn’t.

“Relax, my dear,” Ollivander gave a soft, raspy chuckle when he saw her eyes, “I had my suspicions about you not going to Hogwarts last year, or the year before that for that matter, so I sent a letter to the Headmaster. He wrote me back saying I was the answer to one of his many prayers,” he gave her a wink, “He’s been looking for you for many years, you know.”

Holly’s eyes widened with surprise. Why hadn’t Hogwarts been able to find her? She’d been here, in Diagon Alley, for about seven years now. Why couldn’t the famous school find her?

While Holly was lost in these thoughts, Ollivander had begun rummaging around in his desk looking for something. Suddenly a loud crash broke the silence, coming from the direction of the door. Holly was snapped back to reality and the wand maker slammed his fingers in a desk drawer.

“Ouch!” he cried, sucking on his fingers.

Holly rolled her eyes and went over to him. He held out his hand and she inspected it. Ollivander gazed at her admiringly while she looked his hand over.

“I’ve always admired your healing skills, Miss Hawk,” he said, “You’ll make a great witch someday, perhaps even work at St. Mungo’s or the Ministry.”

Holly shrugged off the compliments. If you grew up alone in the back alleys of wizarding London, you had to learn and you had to learn fast. She pulled out a bottle of white cream from her robes. The clothes were much too small for her, but she couldn’t afford new ones. The money she made from her delivery job barely managed to keep her fed, her cauldron in a somewhat acceptable state and buy the ingredients she couldn’t scrounge from the waste bins. _And pay Mr. Twick_ , she thought as she carefully applied the cream to Ollivander’s fingers. The swelling and bruising went down instantly.

“Thank you,” Ollivander bowed his head slightly, “Now I must see to what that ruckus was about.”

Holly paused to put her bottle away before following the wand maker to the front of the shop.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

“Oh, Ron you’re completely hopeless!” moaned Hermione as the redhead fell off the chair for a second time.

The crash rang around the shop, echoing far into its depths. Ron had just gotten up when Ollivander appeared, muttering things about silly children. He stopped when he saw the three people standing there.

“May I ask what you three are doing in a wand shop if you already have your wands?” the wand maker asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, sir,” Harry quickly stepped forward, “We were just wondering if you’d seen a girl.”

“A girl?” said Ollivander, “What girl, might I ask?”

“Oh, she’s about as tall as me with long, black hair,” Harry stammered.

A soft rustling sound came from behind the desk and Holly appeared before them.

“Ah, I believe I know the girl of whom you speak, Mister Potter,” the wand maker said as he motioned to Holly, “Mister Potter, Miss Granger, Mister Weasley, I would like you to meet Miss Hawk and vice versa. But will you three wait for further introductions a moment? Miss Hawk and I have something to discuss.”

And with that, Ollivander conjured two more chairs and then whisked Holly back into the depths of the shop. Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged glances.

“You’re right, she doesn’t look like a first year,” Ron spoke into the eerie silence.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

As Ollivander pulled her deeper into the shop, Holly yanked her arm free and stood glaring at the shopkeeper, her arms folded across her chest.

“Oh, Miss Hawk, don’t be angry,” he continued down the aisle, “You have much to do before you leave and before you go about making new friends,” he paused and then glanced back at her, “And, if I may be so bold, those three may cause trouble for you,” then he shrugged and kept walking, “I just wanted to give you your wand.”

Holly’s eyes immediately caught fire and she quickly followed Ollivander back to his other desk.  He stopped there and got busy looking around the shelves, pulling out supposable wands for Holly.

“In the letter from Professor Dumbledore, he instructed me to tell you that you needn’t buy anything except robes and a wand,” the wand maker muttered as he hurried around the shelves, “I’m happy to give you your wand at no expense but you must get your own robes. Now I’ve spoken to Madame Malkin, and she’s agreed to take some poultice for her feet instead of money.”

As Ollivander turned around, he noticed Holly’s eyes filling with tears and rushed over to her.

“Oh, Miss Hawk, what is wrong? You must not be sad,” he rested a comforting hand on her shoulder, “You are going to Hogwarts! You should be excited for leaving these alleys. Though I suppose you will miss some things around here. This old shop will be lonesome without you, and Mister Twick’s as well,” he sent her a sly look, “I’ve seen you in his music shop.”

Holly flung her arms around the old wand maker and hugged him with all her might. The man was so kind to her and she loved him for being her friend. Her necklace rustled and Keira wrapped her chain-like body around both Holly’s and Ollivader’s necks.

“My, my,” the wand maker gave a wispy chuckle, “Is that Keira? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”

The dragon clacked her jaws together and Holly smiled. It had taken a long time for Keira to reveal herself to the wand maker. The dragon had a very shy and wary personality and was fiercely protective of the girl she had been given to. But Ollivander had proved his worth to her and every now and then, Keira would slip out of her charms and explore the wand shop or watch as Ollivander made new wands.

Holly kissed the wand maker on his cheek, making his old, pale skin turn quite a shade of pink.

“Oh, alright, it was nothing,” he spluttered out his excuses but Holly hugged him even tighter. When she finally let go, she had gotten a hold of herself and dried her eyes.

 _He can’t expect me to take a wand without paying_ , she thought, reaching into her robes as Keira wove back into place around her neck, _I know how expensive it is to make one._

Her hand emerged and produced a fiery golden phoenix feather. Holly knew that Ollivander had been running short on them and would greatly appreciate it. She had done some serious digging to get it, but she knew that even one would be a big help to him.  She’d been hoping for a special occasion to give it to him, and this seemed appropriate enough. Holly placed it into the palm of Ollivander’s hand and closed his fingers over it. The wand maker’s eyes widened, and then he smiled his thanks to her and set about giving her wands.

It didn’t take long for him to find her a wand. After going through a stack of five, Holly felt the warm, tingling sensation and smiled.

“Ah! Wonderful,” Ollivander smiled knowingly, “Hazel, twelve and three quarter inches, quite springy, and a unicorn hair core. Excellent, Miss Hawk. You will serve this wand well.”

Holly’s eyes moved eagerly over the rod in her hand, taking in her new, and greatly desired, wand. _But if_ _I’d gotten this earlier, I wouldn’t have been able to develop my magic as much as I have already_ , she thought as she turned the wood over in her fingers, _now I’ll be able to do so much more!_

Even though she was well over the age of acquiring a wand, Ollivander had not given her one. Holly had never figured out why… but now she had it!

There was a swirling vine etched from the tip to the base, moving around the nut brown wand as if it were a branch. The girl squinted and brought the wand up to her eyes. For a moment, it had looked like the vine was moving and growing…

“If you’ll allow me,” Ollivander held out his hand to take her wand, “I’ll wrap this up for you and you can be on your way.”

As soon as her wand had been wrapped, he sent her to go and see what Harry, Ron and Hermione wanted.

Holly, however, wasn’t sure she was ready to meet the three people waiting at the front of the store, especially after hearing Ollivander’s warning. So, unbeknownst to everyone, she slipped out a secret side entrance and quickly went to the robe shop, rummaging through her pockets for a foot poultice. She felt a little guilty about abandoning those people, but she didn’t really know them and she wasn’t good with new people anyway. Holly wondered how she’d survive at Hogwarts, a place filled with students and professors. But for now, all she would have to worry about was whether there were robes in her size.

 _Bless you Ollivander_ , thought Holly as she entered Madam Malkin’s Robe Shop.


	4. The Train Ride

It was easy getting to Kings Cross Station. Holly had been there before a few times to deliver some packages and had discovered the secret entrance to platform 9 ¾ a long time ago. She was good at finding secret passages.

She arrived early and got a compartment near the back of the train, where she could hopefully stay alone for the ride to Hogwarts. As it got closer to eleven o’clock, the train started to fill up. A few students walked by her compartment muttering things about the escaped prisoner from Azkaban, Sirius Black. Holly wondered what the man had done to land himself in the dreaded prison, and what he’d done to escape it when it was said to be inescapable. She picked up a paper she’d found in a trash bin on the platform and began to read.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Harry, Ron and Hermione had already found their compartment and were talking in low voices so as not to wake Professor Lupin, who was asleep beside them.

“Do you think she’ll hate us?” Hermione asked in a worried voice, “I mean we sort of just left her before she could come back.”

“Don’t worry,” said Harry in a reassuring voice, “Hawk’s fine. I saw her in Madame Malkin’s robe shop when we went by with your mom, Ron. She was giving Madame Malkin a bottle of something.”

“I still think we should have told Mrs. Weasley that we were waiting for someone,” Hermione crossed her arms.

“By the way Ollivander was yanking her around,” interjected Ron, “I don’t think he’d be letting her see us anytime soon.”

“Yeah, that was weird,” said Harry, “It seemed like they knew each other personally.”

“Perhaps,” said Hermione, who was still worried that Holly might hate them, “But if we see her we’ll tell her that we had to leave because Ron’s mother came and got us.”

“Whatever,” said Ron as he bit into his fourth chocolate frog.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Holly had just finished reading an article on a dragon sighting in Wales, when a group of students entered the compartment opposite hers. She looked up from her paper to see who it was. There were three boys. Two of them looked like pet gorillas, minus all the hair. The other boy had pure blond hair and was much slimmer than the other two. Holly smiled to herself. She’d seen the likes of them on most of her deliveries: the mastermind and his two body guards. Translation: the typical bullies. Her analysis of them was interrupted when the blond boy looked up and saw her staring at them.

“Hey, what are you look-,” he stopped when he realised he’d never seen her before.

Holly let her eyes go back to her paper and realized she’d read the same paragraph about three times now. She threw the paper down in disgust. She was so distracted. _It must be nerves_ , she thought. Just then, her compartment door opened. She looked up to see the blond boy standing there with his two thugs looming up behind him. Holly blinked. _Uh oh_ , she felt very nervous all of a sudden, _please don’t talk to me._

“Hello,” the boy drawled, “My name is Draco Malfoy.”

He paused and glanced at Holly before going on.

“I haven’t seen you around before, are you new or are you just a really tall first year?” his voice held a note of curiosity.

Holly bit her lip nervously and lifted her small carpet bag, displaying the tag where she had written her name. Malfoy leaned a little closer and squinted.

“Holly Hawk?” his voice changed to a sneer, “Never heard of a Hawk family. You must be muggle born.”

Holly’s eyes could have burned a hole through his pale, little face _. So that’s what kind of person you are then, Malfoy?_ thought Holly, _you think blood is a valid reason to disrespect someone?_

She wasn’t a stranger to how some of the wizarding families thought about the blood of a witch or wizard. All too often she had witnessed acts of disrespect, and even violence, directed towards someone for no other reason than that they were a “mudblood”.

Malfoy’s eyes flicked towards his cronies, but his attention returned to Holly when she shrugged her shoulders.

“What?” he asked, “You don’t know? How can you not know?”

Holly shrugged again. There were no blood tests available to wizards and witches, or if there were, Tom and Lila hadn’t been able to afford them. Tom had wanted to know what her blood type was, it had seemed important to him that he know if she was of mixed blood. But Lila had been uncomfortable with the whole thing; she didn’t care about blood types.  

Tom and Lila Scroop had been very kind people, but Tom had always had a respect for the blood type of a witch or wizard. It was the only thing that they’d had disagreements about. Other than that, they had been the loveliest people to have as adoptive parents.

“Well what are your parents?” Malfoy was still talking to her, “Surely you must know what they are?”

Holly shrugged again and shook her head. She didn’t know who her real parents were, let alone what their blood-lines would have been.

“Oh,” a shadow passed fleetingly over Malfoy’s face, “I see… well I’ve still never heard of a Hawk family…”

Holly resisted the urge to shake her head again. There was no Hawk family. Tom and Lila had given her her name partly because they severely disliked their own last name, but also because a hawk had flow overhead when they had found her as a baby under that willow tree. She had stretched up her chubby little arms in an attempt to grab the bird. Of course, it was much too high for a little baby to reach, but it had earned her a last name. And Lila had always wanted a daughter named Holly, and so she had been named.

Holly looked back to Malfoy. He was staring intently at her. She blushed and started to fiddle with the hem of her new robes.

“It’s rude to ignore someone, you know,” he said bluntly.

Holly lowered her face and shrugged again, bringing her hand to her throat.

Malfoy seemed take this action in his own way.

“Oh, are you sick?” he took a step back, “Is it catching?”

A smile broke onto Holly’s face and she shook her head. She wasn’t sick, she’d just been reaching for her necklace.

“Oh, good,” Malfoy looked relieved, “Well, I should get back to my compartment. It was nice meeting you, Hawk.”

Holly smiled again and nodded as the three boys closed her compartment door and left.

 _That was strange,_ she thought, _being around so many people is going to be hard..._ Her necklace snuffled quietly and she stroked it. She settled back into her seat and her thoughts turned back to Hogwarts as she drifted off into sleep.

When she woke up, she found herself on the floor of her compartment. It was dark and cold. Holly could see her breath forming a cloud of mist above her. Jumping to her feet, the girl suddenly felt a deep cold envelope her heart. _That is never good_ , she thought as she opened the compartment door to look out.

Bad idea. She immediately felt her sorrow drowning her, choking her, she couldn’t breathe! Holly fell to the ground and rolled up into a ball. Her eyes lifted and she almost screamed out in terror. There was something floating over her! She couldn’t see its face; it was covered in dark robes. As it bent down towards her, the smell of rotting flesh filled her nostrils. She wanted to get up and run, but her body was frozen in terror. Suddenly everything went misty. She couldn’t make out anything clearly, and she could hear someone screaming. There was a flash of green and the screams stopped. And then a streak of silver shot across her line of vision and everything went black.


	5. Sorting

When Holly regained consciousness, she found herself back in her compartment, lying on one of the seats. There was a man sitting opposite her, reading the paper she had dropped. Holly slowly pushed herself up and glanced nervously at the stranger.

“Ah,” he said when he saw her move, “You’re finally awake.”

He folded up the newspaper and started searching his pockets, pulling out some chocolate and handing it to her. Holly slowly took the offered food and bit into it. She immediately felt warmth spread through her body and gave the man a small smile and then a questioning look. Luckily, he understood her.

“My apologies for the lack of introductions,” he bowed his head slightly, “I am Professor Lupin, your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The thing that attacked you was a dementor, one of the guards of Azkaban. They were searching the train for Sirius Black.”

Holly nodded her thanks for him helping her. Then it was his turn to ask questions.

“May I ask what your name is?”

Holly showed him the same bag she’d shown that Malfoy boy.

“Ah, Miss Hawk then?” he confirmed, “Well, now that you are awake and well, I must continue through the train. It seems that many students were affected, though not as gravely as you were. You were lucky I came by when I did. A second longer and that dementor might have kissed you.”

And with that, Professor Lupin left. Holly still felt a little uneasy, so she finished her chocolate and got up to look around. Everyone looked shaken and the train was eerily silent as she walked past a compartment with some familiar faces in it.

 _I suppose I should try and apologize to them_ , Holly thought, _even though Ollivander said they may cause me trouble. They’re the only people I know already_. She summoned her courage and knocked on the window. The black haired boy, ginger boy and brown haired girl looked up and blinked in surprise before motioning for her to come in. They all looked shaken but Holly noticed that Harry looked a bit worse for wear. She smiled as she opened the door to their compartment and took out the quill and parchment that she always kept on her for communication purposes.

She quickly wrote out her name and the details about what had happened back in Ollivander’s shop and apologized for leaving them there. And then found out that the trio had done the same thing to her. So they were all able to forgive each other and laugh it off, except for Holly, who didn’t laugh, but she did smile encouragingly.

The compartment fell into silence for a moment.

“Umm,” Ron didn’t meet her gaze as he spoke, “I don’t mean to be rude or anything…”

Holly lifted an eyebrow and nodded.

Ron and Harry exchanged looks and Hermione was watching them with pursed lips.

“Do you talk?... at all?” Ron finished, glancing at Holly sheepishly.

The girl’s smile faltered, but she calmly shook her head.

“Oh,” Ron nodded his head awkwardly, “Well, alright then…”

Holly clasped her hands nervously over her lap, then took her quill in her hand and scribbled something onto her paper.

“It’s a long story… but what about you guys? How did you meet?”

This sparked a conversation and soon Holly was learning all about the adventures the three friends had gotten up to during the past two years. From when they fought a mountain troll, up to this past summer, when Harry had seen Holly on the roof of the Leaky Cauldron. Holly blushed and quickly scribbled out why she had been on the roof.

“You work as a delivery girl?” Harry leaned forwards, “What were you delivering?”

Holly scribbled on her paper again.

“It was a letter for one of the tenants of the Leaky Cauldron. It seems he had dealings with Borgin and Burkes.”

“Borgin?” Harry’s eyebrows shot up, “Like the store in Knockturn Alley?”

Holly nodded and the three exchanged glances.

“W-well I suppose you have to do deliveries for a lot of strange people,” Hermione gave her a worried stare, “I hear Knockturn Alley isn’t the... most pleasant place.”

Holly nodded her head.

An awkward silence fell before the conversation then turned to the upcoming school year. Hermione quickly began going through the list of courses she wanted to take this year. Holly’s nervousness must have shown on her face because the bushy haired girl reached across and patted her arm.

“Don’t worry,” Hermione said, “Most of the classes are mandatory, so depending on what house you get into we might be in a lot of them together.”

Holly lifted an eyebrow and scribbled onto her paper.

“Houses?”

Ron let out a laugh.

“Right,” he said, holding out a chocolate frog, “This’ll all be new to you. There’re four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. We’re all in Gryffindor; it’s the best house. I’m sure you’ll get in too.”

Holly smiled nervously and took the offered treat.

Hermione began talking about the castle of Hogwarts and the grounds that surrounded it. Holly listened eagerly and kept nodding. She found all this fascinating and thought Hermione was incredibly smart. Though she noticed that Harry had been relatively silent since she’d arrived.

Ron had just offered her a second chocolate frog when someone passed by the in the hall outside the compartment. As they reached for the door, Harry, Ron and Hermione jumped up. The door opened and Holly recognized Malfoy as he stuck his head in.

“Hey, Potter,” the blond boy sneered, “Are you okay? You look a little _faint_.”

The two thugs behind him sniggered. Just then, Malfoy caught sight of Holly and the smile was wiped off his face. He nodded to her and she, fighting back a smile, nodded back. Malfoy then retreated down the corridor and the compartment door closed behind him. Harry, Ron and Hermione stood staring at Holly.

“Did Malfoy just show you some respect?” gasped Ron.

Holly shrugged; she didn’t think she’d earned Malfoy’s respect.

 _Do they not like each other?_ She wondered as she saw the angry yet curious looks on the three faces in front of her.

Just then the train jerked and started to slow down. Holly left her new friends to pack up, and she returned to her compartment to get her bag.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

When Holly got onto the platform, she just stood there wondering what to do. She wasn’t sure if she should follow the giant man with the other first years or follow the other students to the carriages that were waiting. As she stood in indecision, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning, she met Professor Lupin’s gaze.

“You look lost, Miss Hawk,” he smiled, “Come with me, I’ll take you to Professor Dumbledore.”

He headed off towards the carriages. After a moment’s hesitation, Holly followed him, only to stop once again. She tapped Professor Lupin’s arm to draw his attention. When he turned around she pointed to the space between the rails of the carriage. Lupin gave her a questioning look, and then he understood.

“Those are thestrals, my dear,” he replied, “I cannot see them because, like most of the students here, I have not seen death.”

 _Thestrals, of course!_ Holly thought, she’d read about them at the book store in Diagon Alley once. Only those who had seen death could see the strange looking, skeletal horses. She stared at the empty space and smiled when she heard soft knickers and stomps that revealed the presence of the creatures. Then she followed Professor Lupin over to the carriage door.

Once they were both settled in the carriage, it jerked and began moving. Professor Lupin asked her a few questions at the start of their journey, but had stopped after it became hard for Holly to keep up with her writing. The rest of the ride was silent.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Holly sat alone in the room Professor Lupin had left her in. She had been led into the castle and then through a huge hall that was filled with tons of students. The size and splendour of the Great Hall had almost overwhelmed her. But she hadn’t had time to marvel at it for long because Lupin had led her along the side of the hall and around behind the table at the head of the room. He had then spoken to a short, squat woman who smelled of earth, and then Holly had been led into the room she now found herself in.

 _He told me to wait until Professor McGonagall comes_ , she thought as her fingers nervously traced along Keira’s body, _I wonder who that is?_

She sat quietly and listened to the sounds coming from the Great Hall. She could hear a woman’s voice speaking every now and then and there were lots of small cheers along with some moments of silence.

Holly took this moment of calm to think about her situation. Hermione and Ron had said that there were four houses and that she would be put into one of them. So maybe she couldn’t join the rest of the students in the Hall before that happened.

 _I wonder how they decide where you go_? she thought, _what were they?_ _Ravenclaw… Slytherin… Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. And Hermione and the others were all in Gryffindor. I hope I get into that house then._

There was a loud burst of cheering from the Hall outside and then the buzz of conversation became a constant hum. Holly jumped as the door of the room opened and a tall, stern-looking woman in dark green robes entered _. She must be Professor McGonagall_ , she thought.

“Miss Hawk, I presume,” the witch gave her a sharp stare and Holly nodded, “Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It seems you are a few years late in attending our school, but for now you will be attending the regular third year schedule.”

Holly nodded again and moved to stand, but Professor McGonagall lifted her hand and gestured for her to stay seated.

“A trunk with appropriate supplies has been prepared and will be left in your dormitory,” the woman approached her and held out what looked like a wad of cloth, “You will now be sorted and may join your house table presently.”

Holly blinked as she recognized the wad of cloth to be a hat. Professor McGonagall lifted the hat and placed it on her head. The fit was a bit too large for her and the brim of the hat fell down to cover her eyes. As soon as her eyes saw darkness, a small voice spoke in her ear.

“Oh, how interesting.”

Holly stiffened and jerked her body, almost falling off the stool. She felt a hand grip her shoulder tightly and prop her back up.

“Please sit still, Miss Hawk,” Professor McGonagall’s sharp voice came from her side.

Holly quieted and clenched her hands tightly into her lap.

“You are very sharp, my dear,” the small voice spoke again, “Much too sharp to be afraid of an old hat. You wouldn’t be out of place in Slytherin.”

 _Oh so the hat is speaking_ , Holly realized _, is this how I get sorted?_

“Yes it is,” the hat replied, “I can see your qualities and am capable of determining the house that would best suit you.”

Holly shifted nervously in her seat and lightly bit her lip.

“Capable, yet quite skittish around new surroundings,” the hat continued, “Sensible, kind and a remarkable ability to heal. Hufflepuff may be best for you, my dear.”

Holly felt her mouth turn down in a pout.

 _But the others are in Gryffindor_ , she thought, _I don’t want to be alone all over again._

“Oh?” the hat whispered, “A strong desire for companionship and a thirst for answers. But do you have the courage to seek them out? There’s a shadow lurking in your mind, my dear… but are you brave enough to let others in?”

Holly frowned into the darkness of the hat. Her fists clenched as she felt a small spark of defiance.

 _This time will be different!_ She thought, _this is a whole new start! I’ll make new friends who I can trust. I finally got out of those Alleys! I’m not going to go back!_

The small voice chuckled in her ear and then fell into a contemplative silence. Holly’s body was tense as she waited. She wasn’t sure what she was waiting for, but she felt that whatever was happening was going to end soon. Even so, she jumped in her seat when the voice shouted in her ear.

“Gryffindor!”

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Draco Malfoy was feeling very confused as he sat down at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall. He just didn’t know what to make of that Holly Hawk. He had spoken to a few of his Slytherin cronies and no one had seen her before. For a reason that he didn’t understand, she fascinated him. It hadn’t looked like she’d had much, just her bag that had her name on it. And she hadn’t even known what her or her parent’s magical blood type was. _Does that mean she doesn’t know who her parents are?_ He wondered as Dumbledore began his speech. Draco shivered as he remembered how she had looked at him when he’d asked if she were muggle-born. Her eyes had been balls of fire.

Crabbe nudged his arm.

“What!” he spat.

The larger boy pointed to the doors of the Great Hall. Hawk had just entered behind that man they had seen on the train, the one with the shabby clothes. Draco watched as they both walked up to the staff table. The man said something to Professor Sprout, and then went through a door behind the staff table with Hawk in tow. To be fair to her, it looked like she had no idea what was going on. A few minutes later, the man came back out and seated himself at the staff table and the sorting started.

After the last first year had been placed into Ravenclaw, Draco noticed Professor McGonagall take the Sorting Hat into the back room. Not long after that, Hawk came out and went to join the Gryffindor table.

“Damn!” spat Draco.

Goyle gave him a weird look but Draco ignored him. His eyes were still on Holly. _Damn_ , thought Draco again. She had gone and sat down with Potter and his gang. As he turned his attention back to his goblet, Draco noticed that Marcus Flint was watching the Gryffindor table as well. _That’s a little weird,_ he thought.


	6. New Surroundings

Holly fell onto her new bed none to gracefully. Her stomach was fuller than it had ever been and she enjoyed the sluggish feeling that accompanied being full. _What a day we’ve had, right Keira?_ She thought, _yesterday we fell asleep in an abandoned old shop in Knockturn Alley, and now we’re going to fall asleep in a castle!_ It was so unbelievable that Holly had to pinch herself just to make sure she wasn’t going to wake up on a wood floor with rain dripping onto her face.

She had been placed in the third year girl’s dormitory along with Hermione, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. Holly had never slept with other people around her, but since these beds had curtains she thought she’d be fine. Beds! Actual beds! Holly couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept in a real bed. She sat up and saw a trunk sitting on the floor on the other side of her bed.

 _Oh! This must be what Professor McGonagall mentioned_ , she thought and went over to open it.

The trunk contained a new cauldron, ties and scarves in Gryffindor colours, and many other necessities that Holly had never even considered buying.

 _This is wonderful!_ She thought as she lifted a set of parchment, quills and ink, _did someone buy all this for me or do all students get things supplied to them?_

At that moment, the door opened and the other girls came into the dormitory.

“Oh, hello Holly,” said Hermione, “I’d wondered where you went. Everyone’s still down in the common room, why don’t you come back with us.”

Holly shook her head. She wasn’t quite in the mood to be asked a lot of questions that she couldn’t answer. She was still very uncomfortable being around so many people.

“Okay then,” said Hermione with a slightly disappointed look on her face, “But you can’t hide up here forever. There are a lot of people that want to meet you.”

“I can introduce you to all the boys,” Lavender giggled as she began unpacking.

Holly felt her face flush and she shook her head nervously.

“Is it true you can’t talk?” Parvati asked suddenly, “Ron said that you were mute.”

Hermione gave her a disdainful look, but Holly shook her head again.

“So you can talk then? Why don’t you?” Parvati’s stare was curious.

Holly began feeling flustered. Her fingers flew to her necklace and she bit her lip.

“Well that’s her business isn’t it,” Hermione snapped before Holly could respond, “How would you like it if people kept asking you why you wear your hair in that ridiculous bun all the time.”

“Sorry,” Parvati frowned, “but not talking is a little weirder than my hair,” she shot a little glare at Hermione.

Holly was beginning to feel uncomfortable so she decided it might just be best to go down with them. She might as well get this over with anyways. She got up and made her way over to the door. Hermione lifted her eyebrows but followed after her and the girls made their way back down the stairs.

The common room was still full so Holly had plenty of people to meet and not say hi to.  Hermione kept close to ward off too much attention, which Holly was extremely grateful for.  She already liked the bushy haired girl very much and hoped that they would become fast friends.

 _I’ll make good friends this time,_ she thought determinedly _, I was afraid to do that in the Alleys because those people weren’t trustworthy. But here… it seems safer._

Within fifteen minutes she had met all of the boys in her year, as well as Ron’s twin brothers Fred and George, the quidditch captain, Oliver Wood, and some other girls on the team, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell. All seemed eager to meet her and all she could do was smile and nod her appreciation.

It wasn’t until Professor McGonagall came into the common room and told everyone to get to bed, that Holly was able to get back upstairs to go to sleep. She jumped into bed and was just crawling under the covers when Hermione came over.

“Don’t you have any pyjamas? Or are you going to sleep in your robes?” she asked.

Holly blushed and kept wiggling under the covers. She didn’t have any other clothes, a fact that was embarrassing to admit. Hermione put her hand on her shoulder.

“Here, take these,” the other girl handed her a light blue dressing gown and some slippers, “These are too small for me. I was going to throw them away, but…here.”

Holly took the dressing gown in her hands. It felt almost like silk, or maybe it was satin. Hermione watched as the dark haired girl gazed longingly at the gown in her hands.

“I’m not accepting them back, so if you don’t want them just throw them away or find someone else to give them to.”

Holly gave Hermione a sly smile. She knew that she was being forced into taking them, whether she liked it or not. She quickly stripped off her robes and slid the lovely gown over her shoulders. It fitted perfectly and felt amazing against her skin. She put on the slippers and strutted around the room, showing off her new finery.

Hermione laughed and said, “You know that it’s only for the bedroom right?”

Holly rolled her eyes at her and smiled before jumping onto her bed and just lying there. She was in a castle, lying in a four poster bed and wearing the most beautiful night gown in the world! She felt like a princess. She had never had anything like this, never. Life was definitely going to get better now. Holly had never been happier. She crawled under the covers and went right to sleep.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Down in the dungeons, Draco Malfoy was also preparing for bed. His mind was buzzing. He had just had the most unusual conversation with Marcus Flint, the captain of the Slytherin quidditch team.

Flint had come up to him in the common room right after the feast. At first they had talked about quidditch and how Malfoy’s father could get all their brooms polished for free, but then Flint had brought up a subject that Draco did not want to talk about.

“So I saw you eyeing that new girl at the feast,” Flint had smirked, “The one who got into Gryffindor.”

“Yeah,” Draco muttered, he did not like this topic at all, especially coming from Flint.

“So, what do you know about her? Not that I’m interested in any, realistic, way,” the quidditch captain lounged back across the common room couch.

Draco wasn’t really sure what that meant so he just shrugged his shoulders.

“I mean, she sure is easy on the eyes,” continued Flint, barely noticing Draco’s shrug, “But she’s in Gryffindor, so there must be something wrong with her.”

It was painfully obvious that that wasn’t what Flint thought at all.

“Are you going after some skinny little Gryffindor chick now, Flint?” sneered Draco, “Pansy wasn’t enough for you?”

“Shut up!” snapped Flint, “I was just saying she was pretty, that’s all.”

“Sure,” Draco rolled his eyes.

Flint got up and stalked off to his dormitory. Not long after that, Draco had followed suite. Now he was lying in bed and wondering what school would be like now that there were Slytherins going after Gryffindors.


	7. Day One

Holly woke up in a flurry of blankets and pillows. _Where am I Keira?_ she panicked _, I’m all tangled up in something_. Keira’s sharp chirp brought Holly somewhat back to her senses. _Oh_ , she thought, _I’m just in bed… In bed?!?_ Holly sat bolt upright and looked wildly about her. Her stomach suddenly tensed and nervousness flooded through her body, fearing the strange place she suddenly found herself in. It took a moment for her to register the sleeping body in the bed next to hers, but eventually she remembered the events of the previous day. _Well now I just feel silly_ , thought Holly, trying to slow her breath and calm her beating heart.

She untangled herself from her blankets and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Her feet fell upon the slippers Hermione had given her and she smiled, letting her toes slip into them. She quietly got out of bed and made her way down to the Common Room.

It was still quite early in the morning and the moon shone brightly through the window by the fireplace. Holly snuggled into one of the red armchairs placed around the room and unclipped Keira, letting her friend play on the windowsill. As Keira clacked and growled at the strange creature reflected in the window pane, Holly let her mind wander. It wasn’t long before she once again drifted off to sleep.

Holly woke to find a hand gently shaking her shoulder. She jerked up to find Hermione standing over her. 

“You’d better go get dressed,” she said as she helped Holly out of her chair, “You don’t want to be late on your first day.”

Holly glanced wildly around the room, _where did you go Keira_? she thought frantically. Then she felt a little nip on her wrist and a slight weight wind itself around her arm. Holly gave Hermione a slightly frazzled, but grateful, glance and hurried up the dormitory stairs. As she rounded the door way into the girls dormitory, a streak of orange flew by and almost knocked her over. As Holly regained her balance she heard an exclamation form down the stairs.

“Oi, Hermione! Keep that thing in line!” she recognized Ron’s voice.  Holly ducked into the dormitory before she could hear the rest of the argument.

 _That must’ve been Hermione’s cat_ , Holly remembered Harry saying that she’d gotten a new one during the summer.

Holly quickly got back into her robes, reattached Keira, and hurried back down to the Common Room. She didn’t see Hermione, Ron or Harry and figured they must’ve already gone down for breakfast. So she climbed through the portrait hole and followed the buzzing crowd of Gryffindors down to the Great Hall. She felt extremely uncomfortable having so many people around her. But it wasn’t a totally new feeling. The streets of Diagon Alley had often been quite packed.

Holly found herself seated at the Gryffindor table between the quidditch captain, Oliver Wood, and Neville Longbottom, a boy in her year. The table was piled high with the most delicious foods she had ever seen. She piled sausages, eggs, bacon, potatoes and pancakes onto her plate and dug in. Even though she’d stuffed herself the night before, she felt just as ravenous now.

“W-wow,” she heard a voice from her side, “You must be really hungry.”

Holly swallowed her mouthful and looked to her left to see Neville watching her. She blushed and lowered her face, but offered a small nod.

“Ah, I didn’t mean to make you embarrassed,” Neville stammered as he waved his hand apologetically, “Sorry about that. I’m not very good with small talk…”

Holly smiled a little at his last words. She wasn’t great at small talk either. Her smile seemed to brighten the boy’s mood as well but he didn’t try to speak to her again.

After Holly had eaten enough to stop her stomach from growling, she took a break from her plate and looked around the Great Hall. The ceiling was mirroring the fresh blue sky that must be outside and the candles were all slightly dimmed. As her attention turned from the Hall to the students in it, she felt her heartbeat quicken. She hadn’t been able to see the entire body of students that had been in the Hall last night, being so overwhelmed and it being night and all. In the light of day there were more people within these four walls than she’d ever seen, even in the packed streets of Diagon Alley. _How will I manage?_ she thought to herself, feeling her stomach twist into a nervous knot.

While she was mulling over this predicament, the professors came down from the head table to hand out time tables. Professor McGonagall placed Holly’s schedule on the table in front of her. The girl glanced at it, and then stared. It was blank.

She started to get up, waving in order to get Professor McGonagall’s attention.

“You are to see Professor Dumbledore after breakfast, Miss Hawk.” said Professor McGonagall, “Do not forget that he favours sugar quills.”

Holly shot Professor McGonagall a questioning glance but she had already moved on further down the table. When the girl had finished her breakfast, she got up and was halfway down the hall before she realized that she didn’t even know where Professor Dumbledore’s study was.

As she stood in the middle of the Great Hall trying to figure out who to ask for directions and searching through her robes for a piece of parchment, she felt that someone was trying to get her attention. She turned and caught the eyes of a person with very ginger hair.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

George Weasley had overheard what Professor McGonagall had told Holly and, since he did not feel like starting the year off with a potions class, he offered up his services as a guide. He could tell by her expression that Holly was relieved to not have to try and ask someone. He actually felt proud that he had made this easier for her. He had only known her for a day, but he was already quite curious about her. Word had gotten around fast and the whole house knew that the new third year girl was mute.

As they made their way up the Grand Staircase, Holly’s foot sank right through a step halfway up. Unfortunately, she made no sound, so George didn’t notice until he had already reached the top.

He turned and saw her knee deep in stair and let out an embarrassed chuckle as he climbed back down again.

“Sorry about that. I forgot you wouldn’t know anything about the secrets and tricks old Hogwarts has up its sleeve,” he apologized but Holly silenced him with a wave of her hand and tried to grab a hold of the railing.

“Here,” said George, reaching out, “Let me help.”

Holly blushed and took his hand. The twin wobbled a bit because she was a little lighter than he had expected and he grabbed out to steady himself. It wasn’t until he had pulled her out of the stair and got her safely onto the next one that he noticed his hand had fallen on her waist.

“Sorry about that,” he felt his cheeks flushing through his grin, “I swear we Weasley’s are a gentlemanly bunch. Well, except Ron that is, he’s the odd one out in the looks department as well.”

Holly stared at him for a moment, and then her shoulders shook a little in a silent laugh. George felt a sense of pride as he watched her stifle her giggles.

“Come on,” he said, “The Headmasters office is this way.”

And they continued up the stairs.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

George left her standing in front of the gargoyle, waving and saying he needed to hurry or he’ll be late for being late to class. Holly stared after him and smiled. _He certainly is funny_ , she thought, _and he’s very kind. Those are both good qualities right Keira?_ the little dragon wiggled around her neck until she got to Holly’s ear, which she gave a little nip. _You’re right_ , thought Holly, _I don’t have time for boys right now._

She turned her attention towards the gargoyle that stood silently in front of her _. This was supposed to be the door?_   Holly thought. She looked up and down the hall. There weren’t any other rooms on either side of her. _Well this is a bit weird isn’t it Keira_ , she thought, _what did Professor McGonagall say?_ Keira purred quietly in her ear. _Well I hardly think that sugar quills will help at this point, maybe she wanted me to buy--._ At that moment the gargoyle sprang to life and jumped aside, revealing a large, wooden door.

“Professor Dumbledore is expecting you,” it said in a deep gravelly voice.

Holly nodded to the gargoyle and walked through the door. She walked up the spiral staircase and knocked gently on the door at the top.

 

Professor Dumbledore’s study was unlike any room Holly had ever seen. Every shelf was cluttered, every tabletop full, there were even small mountains of mechanisms piled in the corners. Things clicked, ticked and whirred everywhere. For a few moments, Holly just stood in the doorway, awestruck.

A small rustling sound interrupted the constant clicking to her left. Holly turned and found herself face to face with a phoenix. _Well aren’t you gorgeous_ , she thought, reaching out and stroking the bird’s soft plumage. It gave a soft coo and clacked its beak just as a door shut, covering up the sound. So Holly didn’t hear Professor Dumbledore entering the room and continued to pet the phoenix.

“A beautiful bird isn’t he?” spoke Professor Dumbledore.

Holly spun around and stared at the floor to hide the embarrassed flush of her cheeks.

“His name is Fawkes,” continued the headmaster, “He’s a phoenix.”

Holly nodded and glanced again at the birds’ bright plumage. She had seen one of these beautiful bird’s stuffed body in a shop at Knockturn Alley, but seeing one alive was much more wonderful.

“I summoned you up here to pick out your classes for this year, since I wasn’t able to contact you before this time,” said the Headmaster.

Holly nodded apologetically and walked forward to take the parchment that was being held out to her.

“For now, you have been enrolled in the usual third year classes, until we figure out where you stand in the lessons. If you need to take first and second year courses, I mean.”

 _Professor Dumbledore seems to have it all figured out already_ , thought Holly, _what does he need me for?_

Dumbledore motioned for Holly to look at the parchment in her hands.

“This is a list of all the optional courses you may take, as well as the ones which are mandatory.”

Holly looked at the list. _Well I have to take transfiguration, potions, charms, herbology,  astronomy, history of magic and defence against the dark arts. That leaves two open spaces_. She scrolled down the list and picked out a few that seemed interesting. She wrote these out at the bottom of the parchment and handed it back to Professor Dumbledore.

“Well,” he said, “Divination is a fine choice, and so is the study of Ancient Runes, but I’m afraid that the Arithmancy class is at full capacity this year, Miss Hawk.”

Holly held out her blank schedule. Dumbledore took it and tapped it with his wand. The blocks and times started to fill up the page, and soon Holly had a full years’ worth of classes.

“There you are, my dear,” said the headmaster, “Now it appears that your first class is Transfiguration and it would not do to miss your first day entirely. Do not worry about your books; they will be waiting for you in your classroom. Good day.”

 _Even my books?_ Holly wondered, _they’re giving everything to me?_

She got up, beaming at the old wizard seated in front of her, and headed for the door. Just as she was crossing the threshold, she paused and cast a worried glance back into the room.

“If you ever find yourself to be in need of direction,” Professor Dumbledore suddenly spoke up, as if reading her thoughts, “A good “point me” spell always does the trick for me.”

Holly smiled her thanks to the Headmaster and hurried back down the staircase and into the hall… and right smack into a person.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Marcus Flint was on his way back to the Slytherin Common Room to get some quills that he had forgotten, which had cost him five House Points from Professor Flitwick. Remembering that there was a secret passage that would take him straight to the Great Hall nearby, he turned down the corridor where the Headmasters’ study was and made for the curtains which hung at the far end. He was halfway down it when someone came flying out from behind the gargoyle and collided head on with him. Flint managed to keep his balance, but whoever it was fell in a heap on the ground.

“Watch where you’re walking you bloody-!” he stopped.

Flint stared at the girl looking up at him from the floor. Then he looked back down the hall; it was deserted. Looking back to the girl once more, he took a breath. _This definitely cannot be found out,_ he thought.

“Oh, sorry,” he finally managed to stammer out.

The girl raised her eyebrows at him, and then turned her attention to getting herself up off the floor. She tried to straighten her legs, but got tangled up in her robes and just managed to get half up before falling back down again.

“You sure are clumsy for a Gryffindor,” Flint’s voice was mocking, “Here, don’t embarrass yourself.”

He held out a hand. The girl hesitated and Flint saw wariness in her eyes, but then she reached out and took it his hand. Flint pulled her up, and then he just stood there. _Come on Flint_ , he said to himself, _pull yourself together, she’s a Gryffindor for god’s sake! Just being seen with her can get you in trouble_. But he knew that she was special, his hand was still tingling.

“You’re new right?” he found himself asking.

The girl nodded.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

Her hair swayed as she started looking through her pockets. This confused Flint; why wasn’t she answering him?

“I said: what is your name?” he asked again.

The girl’s search of her robes became more frantic. Finally she pulled out a quill. As Flint stared, she scribbled out something on a schedule she was carrying and held it out to him.

“Holly Hawk?” he read.

The girl nodded.

“Well you could’ve just told me,” muttered Flint.

Holly just shook her head, glanced at him for a moment, and then turned and walked away down the hall.

Flint stood there, staring after her for a moment, and then he spun around and made for the curtain at the end of the hall.

 _Well that didn’t go as planned_ , thought Flint _, but it could’ve been worse. At least I know her name_.

 


	8. A Rough Start

When Holly rounded the corner, she pressed herself up against the wall. _Whoa…_ she didn’t know what to think. _That was interesting wasn’t it Keira?_ the little dragon scratched her neck with a silver claw. _Well, it doesn’t matter; I don’t even know his name._

Holly restarted her way down the hall, realized she didn’t know where she was going, and stopped again. _What did Professor Dumbledore say, Keira? A point-me spell?_

Holly held her wand out in front of her and thought _Point me_.

Her wand lurched out of her hand, spun around a few times in the air in front of her, then settled down. It was pointing back the way she had just come.

 _Oh dear_ , thought Holly, _I hope he’s not still there._

She slowly peeked around the corner. The hall was empty.

Holly blinked. _Where did he go?_ she wondered. She slowly walked down the hall, looking around carefully to make sure there wasn’t a door she’d missed before. She didn’t find any, but then her eyes fell on a tapestry hung up on the end wall of the hall.

 _Hmmm_ , she thought as she went over to it. She reached out her fingers and touched the fabric, the tapestry gave a little under her hand. Holly felt a spark of excitement as she pulled the tapestry out and peeked behind it. A small hallway was revealed and Holly smiled. There were secret passages here! _I guess that would make sense in such an old castle,_ she thought. The passage was softly lit with a few torches in brackets along the wall. Holly redid the point me spell. Her wand spun around once again and stopped in a direction not completely off the passage way. _Good enough,_ she thought. She slowly entered the passage, letting the tapestry fall closed behind her, _I wonder how many secrets this castle holds? I can’t wait to find out!_

After multiple wrong turns and a few more discovered passage ways, Holly finally arrived at her Transfiguration class. She quietly opened the door and took a seat at the back of the class. Despite her efforts, Professor McGonagall noticed her enter.

“Miss Hawk, lateness is not tolerated, even on your first day. Three points from Gryffindor. Your books are over there. Please turn to page three: A study on the transmogrification of inanimate objects.”

Holly quickly grabbed her books from a shelf and sat back down, her face flushed crimson. She had already cost her house points and the first day had barley even started _. I’m already a disgrace to Hogwarts,_ she thought, her shoulders hunched as she heard whispers and saw the other students glance back at her. Keira sneakily licked Holly behind her ear. _Aw thanks,_ Holly thought to her little friend _, you are so sweet_. Holly turned her attention to the page that Professor McGonagall had told her to read. Her mouth dropped, it was full of graphs, charts and tables showing what would happen if you tried to transfigure something. _Oh wait…_ , thought Holly. She looked at the pages again _. I’ve seen these before, in a book in Flourish and Blotts_. Holly flipped through the book. She’d read this already. Holly looked through the other books she’d been given. _I’ve read these ones too_ , she realized _, well this might be easier than I thought._

For the rest of the class, Professor McGonagall taught them how to transfigure toothpicks into needles. It was a warm up class to give them time to remember all the basics. They would be moving on to more advanced spells next class.

Holly had a little trouble with the wand movement at first, she wasn’t used to using it yet. But after the third or fourth try, she’d managed to get her toothpick shiny enough and pointy enough to be called a needle.

“Good job Miss Hawk,” said Professor McGonagall, “You have earned those three points back.”

Holly beamed up at her Professor. She’d fixed her mistake.

Next was Potions. Holly heard some other students say that they had potions too, and complaining about the professor, so she followed them down to the dungeons. It was dank and dark down there and reminded her of Knockturn Alley. As Holly entered the classroom, she noticed Harry, Hermione and Ron already seated at tables near the other side of the room. She gave a little wave and made her way across to them.

“Hey, we haven’t seen you all morning,” Hermione greeted her with a smile.

Holly nodded and sat down beside Ron.

“Is this your first time with Snape?” Harry leaned towards her.

Holly nodded again.

“Boy, are you in for a treat,” said Ron, “Let’s just hope that he doesn’t find out that you don’t talk.”

Holly shot a nervous glance towards the front of the class, where Professor Snape had just entered. His black cloak billowed out behind him as he swept around the classroom, making him look like an overgrown bat.

“You will be making a Cure for Boils today,” he flicked his wand, “Your instructions are on the board, go.”

And with that he swept off around the classroom.

 _Well that was a wonderful introduction_ , thought Holly. She turned her attention to the board, _so a cure for boils is it? I can do that, right Keira?_ she was answered with a quiet rustle.

Holly got to work and soon had her potion bubbling pleasantly and giving off a light golden glow. Ron’s, on the other hand, was sluggishly oozing around his cauldron in a thick purple mass. The ginger boy was frantically trying to bring it back to the pinkish yellow he’d had a few minutes ago, but was only succeeding in making it blacker. Snape’s progress through the class and snarky retorts, which could be heard all around the room, probably weren’t helping. As Snape got closer and closer to their side of the classroom, Ron got more and more frantic. Holly reached out and tapped his shoulder. When Ron turned, she handed him a small bottle of turmeric.

“What’s this?” Ron eyed the bottle.

Holly pointed to his cauldron and made a stirring motion. Ron shrugged and added the bottles’ contents into his potion. As he stirred, his potion slowly turned orange and thinned out. Ron’s eyes widened and he mouthed “thank you” back at Holly. She smiled and turned her attention to her own potion. She knew that nothing could completely save Ron’s potion, but now he would at least get some marks for it.

“I didn’t know you were cheating off another student now, Wealsey,” a drawling voice suddenly came from the table behind them.

The four of them turned to see Draco Malfoy and his two body guards leering at them.

“You just wish she was helping you out, Malfoy,” scoffed Harry.

Malfoy’s cheeks turned just a hint of pink as he glared at them.

“Better watch out Granger, Hawk might just steal your thunder,” he taunted.

Holly blushed and shook her head; she knew Hermione was much better than her.  Malfoy glanced at her then looked behind him.

“Professor,” he called, “Weasley’s cheating,”

Snape walked over and looked into Ron’s cauldron.

“This is obviously much higher than your normal grade of potion, Weasley,” Snape sneered, “Five points from Gryffindor for not providing original work.”

“But sir,” said Ron desperately, “It wasn’t someone else’s work, I just added something to fix my potion.”

“And what was this something?” asked Snape.

“I…I don’t know, sir… Holly gave it to me…,” Ron stammered.

Snape turned his attention to Holly.

“Well this must be our new third year,” Snape muttered, “What did you give Wealsey, Miss Hawk?”

Holly held out the bottle.

“Turmeric?” Snape sounded a bit surprised, “And what made you think to use this?”

Holly pointed to the flobberworm mucus and raised her hand high then gestured to the crushed snake fangs with her other hand and brought it lower, then she leveled out both hands in front of her. Snape just stared at her.

“Umm… she doesn’t talk much, professor,” murmured Hermione, “I think she means that it balances the mix of too much flobberworm mucus with too little snake fang.”

“Yes Miss Granger, I know perfectly well what Miss Hawk was trying to say,” snapped Snape, “It would do better if Miss Hawk told me herself. Five points from Gryffindor.”

Holly felt both guilty and defiant at the professor’s statement. Hermione didn’t have to translate for her, she could manage by herself. But no… she could not tell the professor herself. But that didn’t give any reason to dock points. Holly was beginning to think that Professor Snape was a bit biased. Meanwhile, Snape had moved on to check another boy’s cauldron. Other students were sending her strange looks and whispering amongst themselves. Harry, Ron and Hermione were all looking at her with sympathetic faces.

“It only gets worse from here on in,” warned Harry.

Holly shrugged, her cauldron was about to boil over and demanded more of her attention than the possibility of future harassment.

Despite the rough start, the rest of the class passed smoothly. As well as lunch, charms class, and herbology. By the time dinner rolled around, Holly was ready to crawl into bed and sleep forever. As she walked into the Great Hall the sweet smell of pumpkin pie wafted over her and her stomach growled very loudly. She started to make her way over to the Gryffindor table but stopped about half way there, the hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end; she felt someone’s eyes on her. She turned around, slowly searching the crowd of students. Her eyes fell on the Slytherin table. She saw Malfoy and his friends, a group of girls pouring over a magazine, and then she saw the boy she had run into this morning outside Professor Dumbledore’s study. None of them were watching her though. Holly shrugged and continued on her way to the Gryffindor table to commence stuffing her face with delicious food. Her first day had been an overall success.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Marcus Flint’s eyes found Holly as soon as she entered the Great Hall. She looked quite worn out, but she was still smiling. He had never enjoyed seeing someone smile like this before _. Something is wrong with you,_ he thought to himself, _you shouldn’t be thinking about Gryffindors_. He shot a glance at Malfoy, who was seated a few spaces down from him _. Although I don’t think I’m the only one_ , he remarked.

“Hey, Malfoy,” he called down the table, “Guess who came down to eat.”

Malfoy glanced at the door. He must have seen Holly because when he turned back, he got up and moved towards Flint.

“What do you think you’re doing? Do you want everyone to think we’re soft?” he hissed quietly.

“You think about status too much, Malfoy,” scoffed Flint.

“And you don’t?” asked Malfoy, “You and I both have family status, Flint, so surely you know that Gryffindor’s do not deserve a noble Slytherin’s attention.”

Flint cast a glance over to the Gryffindor table again. Holly had sat next to one of those idiotic Weasley twins. _Well at least they didn’t seem to be talking_ , he thought. Turning his attention back to Draco, he fully understood the dangers of what he (and he was pretty sure what Draco too) was thinking.

“Just don’t be too obvious about it Malfoy, even I can tell what you’re thinking,” Flint smirked and went back to his meal.

Malfoy stalked back to his seat and sat there fuming. Flint laughed and reached for a piece of pie.

But throughout dinner, he kept glancing over at Holly. When she finally stood up to leave, he left his half eaten dessert on his plate and hurried out of the Great Hall before her. He didn’t really have to hurry; she was taking her sweet time making her way out of the Great Hall. Flint positioned himself behind one of the hog statues by the entrance. As soon as he saw Holly was clear of the entrance so everyone inside wouldn’t see him, he started walking at a brisk pace perpendicular to her. _Second time’s a charm_ , he thought, and he clipped her arm as he walked by.

Rounding on her he said, “Watch out, Hawk! If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you just can’t keep away from me,” he smirked.

The girl blushed and looked confused. Flint looked away so the urge to smile wasn’t too overpowering; she was so cute.

Holly made a little curtsy, nodded and smiled at him, then made to walk away. Confused, Flint reached out and grabbed her arm.

“Hey! Not even an apology?” he was a little startled by her reaction.

Holly gave him a pleading look and then she put her hand on his forearm and squeezed a little. Flint snatched his arm back and quickly scanned the entrance hall for people. There were a few Hufflepuffs going up the stairs, but they were looking the other way, and there was no one coming out of the Great Hall. He looked back at Holly. Her face was downcast and she looked hurt.

 _Damn it!_ Thought Flint, _Now I’ve gone and hurt her feelings._

“Sorry,” he mumbled, “It’s just that Slytherins aren’t supposed to talk to Gryffindors, let alone touch them.”

And with that he turned and walked down the stairway towards the dungeons.


	9. A Slytherin's View

Flint lay in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. For the past hour he’d been trying to sort out all the emotions he’d been feeling all day. He’d never felt like this before. On the other hand, maybe he was finally feeling normal after years of feeling like the world was constantly ending.

Flint hadn’t been doing well in school. In fact he’d been doing so poorly that he had actually failed for the past two years. This was supposed to be his last year at Hogwarts but he was still taking fifth year courses. He had been working for four straight summers to pay for his new broom and to save up for a place of his own. He couldn’t wait to get away from his family. They idolized his older brother and completely ignored him. He had always done his own thing, no one ever cared. That’s partly why he had failed for two years in a row. But it hadn’t been completely for attention, he had actually been having trouble with some classes. The only reaction he’d gotten from his father was a scarce, almost inaudible comment when he read the letter saying Flint was to repeat his fifth year a second time.

“Well at least schooling is cheaper these days.”

Those were the cherished words that had been the first uttered in years that even remotely concerned him.

Flint hadn’t felt anything but anger, frustration and sadness for longer than should be necessary for anyone. Maybe he’d just finally gotten tired of it all and had begun to loosen up.

 _No that can’t be it_ , he thought _, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way._

His hand and his arm had been warm ever since Holly had touched them. He couldn’t get her face out of his head. The way she walked and the way she flipped her hair out of her eyes was perfect. The only thing that seemed odd to him was that she hadn’t said a word. Usually if you bump into someone twice in one day you at least say sorry (even if the second time had been his fault). Maybe he’d talk to Draco about it again. He didn’t care whether Malfoy thought he’d gone soft or not, mostly because he had a suspicion that Malfoy also had feelings for Holly Hawk. A small spike of jealousy arose in him as he thought this. _Wow Flint_ , he thought, _getting possessive already are we?_ He got up and made his way to the common room.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Draco was sitting on one of the couches by the fire in the Slytherin common room reading some pages for Transfiguration when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Got time, Malfoy?” he heard a drawling voice behind him.

“Good God, Flint,” Malfoy sneered, “You really love talking to me don’t you.”

“Shut up,” barked Flint, “I need some information.”

This caught Draco’s attention, Flint wanting information from him? They’d barely ever spoken before, even at quidditch practise.

“Really? Well then what do you want?”

Flint, after checking the common room for stragglers, sat down across from him and folded his arms.

“You seem to know more about this Hawk girl than most people,” he started cautiously, keeping an eye on Malfoy’s reaction.

Malfoy stiffened a little and closed his book. _Not again_ , thought Draco _, I don’t want to talk about her with you, why are you so interested anyways?_ The last part he said out loud.

“Why are you so interested?”

“She ran into me twice today and didn’t even say sorry,” Flint recounted, “Isn’t that a little weird? Gryffindors are supposed to be all proper and what not.”

 _What?!?_ Malfoy couldn’t believe it. He had only seen her at dinner and Flint had actually had contact with her twice today?! How in hell was this fair?

“She doesn’t talk, idiot,” spat Draco, “Everyone knows that.”

“Wait, like, she can’t talk at all?” Flint gaped.

Draco relished the fact that he still knew more about Holly than Flint.

“No she can talk, she just chooses not to.”

“Oh,” said Flint, “Why?”

Draco didn’t want to answer any more questions and give Flint more information. He didn’t have the right to know about her.

“I don’t know, how would I,” he retorted, “Go away, I need to finish this.”

“Fine, jeez, don’t go all Granger on me,” Flint got up any went back to the dormitories.

Draco opened up his book, but he couldn’t read it now. _Damn you Flint_ , he thought, _now I can’t concentrate. Maybe a walk will help, I need to think anyways._

Draco got up and made his way out into the castle. _Maybe the courtyard will be empty, it’s pretty late._ He walked down a side hallway and up a small spiral staircase and came out into a small garden courtyard. There was a fountain gurgling away in the opposite corner and there were rose bushes everywhere. _Well isn’t this a little too cheery for being so close to the dungeons_ , he thought. Just then he heard a sound. It sort of sounded like someone was humming. He scanned the garden again. There was someone sitting by the edge of the fountain, facing away from him so he couldn’t tell who it was. Draco was about to call out when the person started humming again. _Sounds like a girl_ , thought Malfoy. He looked at the back of the persons head again. _Is that Holly Hawk?_ He couldn’t believe his luck. _Take this Flint_ , smirked Draco. He walked quietly up behind some rose bushes and listened to the quiet humming coming from the fountain.

After a while it evolved into quiet half humming half singing, and eventually he could hear the lyrics of a song over the bubbling of the fountain. It was the most beautiful sound Malfoy had ever heard. Her voice sounded so soft and gentle. He was surprised to find himself struggling to stay awake. Draco strained his ears to try and make out what song she was singing. _Her voice suits her so well; I wonder why she stopped talking,_ thought Draco _, maybe I should ask her._

He was about to emerge from his rose bush when someone else entered the courtyard. Draco’s eyes flashed and he felt the colour rising in his cheeks. _What is a Weasley doing here?!?_ He wanted to send curses flying at him, but he couldn’t be noticed, not now. Draco sat glowering behind the bushes and watched the Weasley approach Holly. _Well hopefully she’ll be horrified by his gingerness and run away_ , he thought grumpily.

It was one of the twins, he could tell by the hair. The Weasley stood just inside the archway for a bit while Holly finished her song, and then approached the fountain.

“You have a beautiful voice,” Draco heard above the gurgling water.

The effect was instantaneous.

Holly’s head jerked up, she made a weird gesture, as if trying to push him away, and she made to get off the fountain ledge, got caught in her robes and fell in.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry Holly,” Draco could hear the Weasley’s spluttered apologies loud and clear, “here let me help you.”

 _No!_ Draco wanted to shout, _you don’t get to touch her you Weasley scum!_ But he looked on as Holly took the twins’ outstretched hand and stumbled out of the fountain. Draco’s spirits lifted, however, because as soon as she was clear of the water, Holly shook off the Weasleys’ hand and sprinted out of the courtyard and disappeared.

 _Ha! Take that Wealsey_ , Draco smiled with satisfaction, _she doesn’t even want to be around you. Now you can leave so I can get out of this bush._

The Weasley just stood there, looking embarrassed and awkward, and then ran out the archway that Holly had gone through and down the hallway.

“Finally,” groaned Draco.

He got out of the bush and walked up to the fountain ledge where Holly had been sitting. It was damp with the water that had splashed up when she had fallen in. Draco looked closer, _wait what are those?_ He squinted at the stone. It looked like there were little footprints of some kind on the ledge. _Are those claw marks? What was going on here?_ This was new information for Draco. He searched around the fountain but there was nothing else abnormal. _Maybe I’m just being too suspicious,_ he thought as he returned to the dormitory and got into bed. But his mind kept working late into the night. He would find out all he could about Holly Hawk, he promised himself that at least.


	10. Escape

Holly ran through the castle, dodging and swerving through the few crowds of students still wandering about the castle. She could still hear the sounds of George pursuing her.

 _If only I could lose him!_ Holly thought frantically, _but I don’t know this castle as well as The Alley’s in London. I was never so careless then either!_

She turned into a side passage and sprinted to the other end, rounded the corner and almost hit a dead end head on.

 _Oh no!_ Holly hurriedly turned and scanned the hallway; the only thing in the corridor was a large cabinet.

 _Well, I’ve hidden in worse places_ , she thought.

She sprang to the cabinet and quickly climbed inside. She had just closed the door when she heard someone enter the corridor.

As the person passed the cabinet, Holly caught a glimpse of red hair.

 _Why are you still following me George_? thought Holly as she leaned against the back of the cabinet.

A few seconds later she saw the red hair pass by going the other way and the hallway was silent.

Holly crept back out into the hallway and quietly closed the door. She leaned against the side of the cabinet and used a drying spell on her robes.

She was so embarrassed. Now George had heard her singing. She hoped desperately that he wouldn’t tell anyone. She only sung once in a while, when she was lonely or sad, or really happy. When she needed to express her feelings or couldn’t keep them pent up inside anymore.

 _I need to find a nice private, secret place for us Keira_ , she thought, _somewhere where no one can hear us._

Holly was suddenly jerked out of her thoughts by the cabinet giving way. She succeeded in keeping her balance this time though. _That’s better_ , thought Holly _, I’m finally getting used to these robes. I was never this clumsy back in London._

Holly turned her attention back to the cabinet. Her weight had pushed it sideways, just enough to reveal a part of a door.

 _Well this is interesting_ , thought Holly.

She pushed the cabinet the rest of the way to uncover the door completely. It was a narrow, wood panelled door with a lion head knocker and a ring handle.

 _Well I might as well get to know the castle now, right Keira?_ her necklace rattled in response. Holly took the handle and pulled the door open to reveal a passageway. _There are so many passages here Keira, we’re going to have so much fun exploring them!_ she thought excitedly.

As soon as she stepped into the passage, however, the door slammed closed behind her and she heard a grating sound and knew that the cabinet had replaced itself.

 _Maybe I should be more cautious,_ she thought _, well now there’s nowhere to go but forward_.

And with that, she made her way up the dimly lit passageway.

It was longer than any of the other passages she’d discovered that day and she was just starting to wonder if she should start to jog, when she came upon the end of the passage. It was just a square panel with a small knob on it. She grabbed the knob and pushed, nothing happened _. Oh,_ thought Holly. This time she pulled. The door swung inwards and she stepped out into a corridor. _Now where am I_ , she thought, _I should really have gotten a map._ She turned and looked at the wall she had just emerged from. The door she’d opened seemed to be on the back of a painting of the ocean. Holly let it close and then ran her hand over the frame. About a quarter of the way up the right side, there was a small notch in the wood. When Holly pulled on this, the picture dropped a little and the door opened again. _There,_ she thought, _now I can find you again._

Holly now turned her attention to the corridor, at the moment it was deserted, but she could hear a lot of voices coming from around the far corner. _Well I guess I’ll go that way,_ she thought.

As Holly rounded the corner, she entered a much larger corridor that was quite busy. Trying not to get caught up in the flow of students, she stood against the wall and looked around.

One end of the corridor ended in a bend so she turned her attention to the other end, and her heart skipped a beat. The library! Holly quickly made her way over to the entrance of the library and slipped into the quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

Now she was in a place where she could feel confident. Holly quickly scanned the front area and found the index shelf. As she approached it, she glanced around the rest of the area. It wasn’t a big space, but it was roomy, and she could tell that it had at least twice the amount of books that Flourish and Blotts had. She couldn’t wait to read them all! Holly reached the index table and rifled through the cards, looking for a book about charms. She’d been having trouble with her essay for Professor Flitwick. While she was busy looking through the index cards, she didn’t hear someone coming up behind her.

“So you found the library alright then?” said Hermione.

Holly jumped, but then turned and smiled.

“This is probably my favourite place in the castle,” continued Hermione, “I just love books.”

Holly’s eyes brightened and she nodded her agreement.

“Well, I was just going to go back to the dormitory because I’ve finished here, would you like to come with me?” offered Hermione.

Holly thought, and then nodded. She could find the book she wanted another time, the essay wasn’t due for a week anyways, and she should learn her way around the castle first.

She followed Hermione out of the library and back through the castle to the portrait hole to the Gryffindor common room.

As soon as the portrait hole closed behind them, a ginger flash whizzed between Hermione’s legs and bounced off Holly’s shin before turning and hissing back the way it had come.

“Crookshanks!” exclaimed Hermione, “What are you doing you silly cat.”

She picked up the frantic feline and he slowly quieted in her arms.

“Here,” Hermione held the cat out to Holly, “This is Crookshanks. He’s been a bit on edge, but he is really sweet.”

Holly rubbed the now purring animal between his ears and smiled as he closed his eyes in pleasure.

“He likes you,” smiled Hermione, “And speaking of gingers that like you…” she added, flicking her head to point behind them.

 _Oh no_! thought Holly, _not George!_

She turned around, but was relieved to see that it was Fred coming over to them. She waved and smiled.

“Hey Holly, Hermione,” he greeted them. “Have either of you seen George?”

They both shook their heads, Holly a little more vigorously.

“The last I saw him was at dinner,” said Hermione, “It’s weird seeing you two apart. You look so much taller without your better half.” She teased.

Fred just smirked, “I always get the girls attention when he’s gone.”

They laughed and Holly smiled with them.

“Well if you see him, just tell him I have his potions homework and he’s not getting it back until he pays up,” said Fred, as he made his way to the boys’ dormitories.

Thinking of the dormitories made Holly yearn for the comfort of her bed. _I’ve had a long day_ , she thought absentmindedly to Keira _, plus I should get out of here before George does show up_. She waved to Hermione, who was moving to sit in one of the chairs by the fire, and followed Fred up to the dormitories.

After quickly changing in to her new night gown, she unclipped Keira and let her play in the bed sheets for a little while and read a few chapters from her History of Magic textbook. Soon, however, the book slipped from her hands and Holly was fast asleep.


	11. First Meeting

George Weasley slowly made his way back to the Gryffindor Tower. He was tired from chasing Holly and frustrated that he had lost her. He was so busy thinking about the events that had lead up to the chase that he didn’t hear Fred approaching from behind until it was too late. Fred whacked him in the back of his head with a slipper and then jumped on him, pinning him to the ground so quickly that George had no time to react.

“What?” joked Fred, “You didn’t even try to fight? That wasn’t even payback, you louse.”

He got up and helped George to his feet.

“I was just thinking,” said George, “And since when do you need any payback? What did I do?”

“You, my good sir, have not given me my galleon for proof reading you potions essay,” stated Fred, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“You haven’t even given me my potions essay,” smirked George, “How will I know you deserve this galleon?” as he said this he took the coin from his pocket and flipped it into the air.

Fred made a dive to intercept the galleon as it fell downwards. While he did so, George grabbed the paper that was poking out of his twin brother’s pocket.

“A fair trade,” laughed Fred as he caught the coin and pocketed it, “Well now that my business is done, I think I’ll turn in.”

He started back towards the dormitories.

“I’ll be up in a second,” George called after him.

When he heard the dormitory door close, George made his way over to the chairs in front of the fire and sank into the closest one.

 _What an evening_ , he thought. He hadn’t been “following” Holly, per say, he was just curious to find out more about her, and since nobody else knew anything and she didn’t talk, there was only one way to do that.

He had seen her leave the Great Hall and he had quickly finished his pie and followed. When he had gotten through the doors, he saw her going up the stairs and so he had followed her. She seemed to be just exploring because she has wandering and looking at all the paintings and sculptures and opening all the doors she could. Now that he thought about it, it kind of seemed like she was looking for something. He had followed her until she had made her way to the courtyard garden on the first floor. He could tell that she really liked the roses because she stopped to smell them and even picked one. He had watched as she sat down on the edge of the fountain and placed the rose blossom on the water. As she had held her hand over it, it changed from red, to white, to purple and then closed up tight and then reopened. But this time, instead of purple, the blossom was silver and had white spirals twisting themselves into patterns all over the petals.

George sighed in his chair. He definitely had feelings for Holly Hawk. She was the first girl that he had even taken an interest in since his third year. He could tell that she was very talented, almost as good as Hermione even, and she was very pretty. Naturally pretty, he noticed she didn’t wear makeup. He wanted to know more about her. What was her family like? Had she transferred here from somewhere? Why was this her third year when she has never gone here before? Why doesn’t she talk?  All these things and more continued to buzz around Georges mind. Then one thought came through clearer than the rest.

He remembered seeing her shift in her position on the fountain, and this blocked him from seeing what she was doing. She had been fiddling with something around her neck. Then it had looked as though she put something down on the fountain because she just sat there and watched a spot in front of her for a long while. That was the first time he had seen her really smile. Yes he’d seen her smile back at people saying hello or when someone said something funny, but this was a real smile. She seemed to be genuinely happy and it made her so beautiful. George remembered thinking about leaving her alone, but right at that moment, she had started to hum. Her voice had transfixed him, and he had just stood there, leaning against a pillar and watching her slowly start to sing. When her voice had stopped he had wanted to tell her to keep singing. Instead he had told her her voice was amazing and had made her fall into the fountain. Why did he always have to make her fall over when he spoke to her? Plus he had made her run away… that was probably the last time she would come near him. He sighed, _why did girls make life so complicated?_

Suddenly, a rustle of papers to his right made George jump; he hadn’t known there was someone else sitting here.

He looked over to see Hermione cleaning up what looked to be a transfiguration parchment.

“Oh, hey Hermione,” George tried to keep his voice light, “I didn’t see you there.”

The bushy haired girl smiled as she packed up her bag and headed towards the dormitories, “Yes I was going to say hello, but you seemed to be thinking about something… or someone,” she added as she disappeared up the stairs.

George blushed towards the fire, _was it really that obvious?_ he thought. He got up and went to join his twin and the other boys in fifth year in the dormitory. _Maybe they’ll have something to distract me_ , he thought. Then he shook his head, there was no way he could stop thinking about Holly Hawk.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

The next few weeks passed like blur for Holly. She wasn’t late again, thanks to Hermione’s guidance, and she managed to avoid any direct contact with George.

On a weekend, she was summoned again to Professor Dumbledore’s office for an update.

All he had was good news, however, and as soon as she entered his office he rose to greet her.

“You seem to be doing well in all your classes, Miss Hawk,” his voice was soft and his eyes twinkled as he gestured for her to sit, “I see no reason why you can’t continue in them.”

This made Holly quite happy. She could stay with her new friends and not have to start all over again.

“Are you getting along well with all your peers and professors?” he asked.

She nodded that she was.

“Because I have noted, as well as most of the students, that you have not spoken a word since you came here,” Dumbledore’s eyes seemed to probe her.

Holly blushed and lowered her head, but she nodded.

“And you are still able to communicate well enough in class, even when asked a question?” Professor Dumbledore continued to press her.

She shrugged. She thought she did well enough, plus they had stopped asking her as many questions so she didn’t really have to answer.

“Well, Professor Snape has asked me to put you in a higher year class because he says you are an exceptional potion brewer,” Dumbledore was watching her with a gentle gaze, but Holly felt that there was something else hidden behind his eyes, “Would you like this?”

Holly raised her eyebrows. Snape thought she was that good? What? He did not like her very much. She shook her head.

“No? You would like to stay in the third year class?” confirmed Professor Dumbledore.

Holly nodded, she wanted to stay with her friends.

“Well in that case, he would like you to help tutor some of the students who are struggling in the class.” His eyes stayed locked on her while he spoke. His gaze made Holly fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat.

“If it is too much for you at the moment you can decline, my dear,” said Dumbledore.

But Holly was already nodding. She had told the sorting hat that this time it would be different. She would take any challenge presented to her! She clenched her fists to stop them from shaking.

“Oh wonderful, you are to report to Professor Snape’s office at 6 o’clock next Friday to receive your student.” His eyes twinkled as he added, “I hope you have a wonderful year Miss Hawk, I will check in now and again to see how you are faring, but I know you will do well. If you ever need anything, do not hesitate to ask.”

Holly smiled awkwardly and stood.

“Oh, and one more thing, Miss Hawk,” Dumbledore stood also, “There is a quiet place on the fifth floor, if you are able to find the door.”

And with that he retreated into the back room of his office.

Holly stood there, mulling over all that she had just heard.

So she was supposed to be a tutor to someone because Professor Snape thought she was good at potions? She fought the nervous knot in her stomach _. Maybe I just got myself into something I can’t handle… But what was that last part about a quiet place on the fifth floor? Well I don’t have any classes right now so let’s go check that out._

As Holly made her way up to the fifth floor, her mind was buzzing with questions. Did Snape really think she was good enough to teach other students? Did everyone at the school really talk about her? What was she going to find on the fifth floor… if she found the door… whatever that meant?

As Holly entered the fifth floor corridor, she noticed that there was only one picture hanging half way down the hall. She walked over to it and saw a group of what looked like battle trolls sitting around a muddy clearing. _Well this isn’t a quiet place_ , she thought, and continued down to the other end of the corridor. The only thing at that end was a stairway back down to the fourth floor.

Holly turned again and looked down the corridor. _There is nothing else in this hallway,_ she thought. She started back towards the painting again. _Did Dumbledore mean that this hallway was just a quiet place_?

Making her way to the corner she had come from, she glanced around just to make sure there wasn’t a door there. Her necklace twisted a little bit. _Well he said that I would have to “find” the door Keira,_ thought Holly as she tapped one of the tiny, folded wings, _that implies that it’s hidden_. Maybe it has something to do with the trolls in that painting. Holly whirled around once again and went over to the painting. She squinted her eyes as she tried to look for a little door hidden in the painting. After a while of not finding anything and trying to ignore the awkward looks the trolls were giving her, she sighed and took a step back.

 _Well Keira_ , she thought, _maybe there aren’t any quiet places here_.

Just then, there was a small popping sound behind her. Holly turned quickly and blinked in surprise. There, on what had only minutes before, been a blank wall, was a door. It was narrow, with deep red wood panelling and a small black knob. Holly let out a little gasp; _this castle really is full of secrets._ Just then she heard some shuffling coming from the painting, turning again, she saw that one of the trolls, the largest one, had gotten up and was now standing at the front of the painting.

“That door only appears to those who need something and walk by it three times while thinking of the thing that they need,” he spoke as if he had said this more times than he would like to, in a grating, raspy voice.

Then he retreated back to the circle of the other trolls and sat down. Holly glanced at the bottom of the painting and saw a little note.  It read: “The Guarding of the Door”-1734, Alfred the Elder, troll emissary.

 _Oh that makes sense then_ , thought Holly, _they guard this secret door as well as whatever one is in the painting._

Turning her attention back to the door, she crossed the corridor. Glancing around to make sure there were no other students coming, she turned the little black knob. It squeaked a little as she did so, but the door opened smoothly and silently. With another quick glance into the corridor, Holly stepped through the doorway and closed the door behind her.


	12. The Room of Requirement

The room that Holly entered was the most amazing room she had ever seen.

Its ceiling vaulted up so high that some areas were in darkness. And that was saying something because there were large windows lining the walls on two sides, flooding the room with afternoon light. The floor was polished so well that it was almost a mirror.

Holly stood there with her mouth hanging open. She looked around the room. There were a few comfortable looking chairs on a rug beside a large bookshelf. She quickly ran over and scanned the shelves. All these books were new to her and they sounded fascinating. There was a book about the history of dragons, one that had the title “Dining with Duke: Recipes for All Royal Occasions”, and she even spotted a small book about healing potions.

 _These are wonderful Keira!_ Holly stared around her in wonder, _Just have a look at them!_

She unclasped the little dragon and put her charms into her pouch. As soon as she was free of the coin and jewel, Keira spread her little wings and took off. Soaring up into the vaulted ceiling and let loose a cascade of roars and yips that, as they echoed, sounded like water running over rocks. The little dragon zoomed all over the room, doing loop-the-loops and flips while Holly looked on.

As she watched her little friend enjoy the first real freedom she’d had since arriving at Hogwarts, it slowly dawned on Holly that she too, for the first time in a long while, was free.

She didn’t have to worry about people seeing her, or about what they would think. She was all alone here, like she had been in her shelter in Knockturn Alley.

Happiness bubbled up inside her so fast that she actually let out a small laugh. Though the noise caught in her throat and came out as a single gasp. At this sound, Keira flew in closer and nipped Holly’s hair as she flew by. The girl moved further into the room as she watched Keira continue her air dances. Looking at the only other wall that was not occupied by windows, Holly stopped mid stride and stared. Then she broke into a run and made it to the corner so fast that she skidded a little when she stopped. There, in front of her, its ivory keys shining in all their glory, was a grand piano.

Tears came to Holly’s eyes as she touched the keys.

She had always loved music. There had been a muggle music store owner, whose shop was just beside the Leaky Cauldron, who had been kind enough to give her a few lessons. She had taken her earnings from her deliveries and had half of them traded for muggle money at Gringotts Bank so she could pay for her lessons. Mr. Twick, the owner, had seen potential in her when she had visited his shop the first time and she had played a small piece that Lila had taught her on one of the display pianos. He had offered teach her some theory. Holly had loved those lessons so much. She had excelled so fast that Mr. Twick had shown her some of the more complex pieces that he had and told her to memorize them, and that if she could within a couple weeks, then he would give her all the sheet music for all her lessons for free. Holly had practiced diligently for a week and a half on a board that she’d painted up to look like a keyboard. By the time of their last lesson, which was the day that Holly had received her Hogwarts letter, she had played them flawlessly for her teacher and he had proudly handed over a nicely bound book full of the music she had learned from him.

Holly remembered his last words that day.

“Here, my dear,” he had said, “These are all of your lessons. Take special care of them and you will never stop learning from them.”

She had gone back to his shop before she had left for Hogwarts, but there was a closed sign on the door and a sold sign hanging from the window. He hadn’t told her he was selling, but she knew that he would be happy wherever he was going; he was such a nice man. She would miss him and his lessons dearly though.

True to her unspoken word, she had been keeping special care of her music, wrapping it in her only spare clothes in her bag among her bottles of potions.

She did not have the book with her at the moment; it was safe in her dormitory. But she knew them all by heart anyways and her fingers were itching to play.

She thrust out the stool and sat down, her fingers hovering over the keys. Holly stayed like this for a few more seconds, just enjoying the feeling. Then she brought her hands down to meet the keys and the notes rang out clear and sweet. They filled the room and rose up into the ceiling. Keira swooped down and landed on the piano in front of Holly and lay down.

Holly played and played. She went through all her lesson music and then some of the music that she had taken from popular songs; she played through classical canons and lullabies. She played until her fingers ached and her hands couldn’t stretch out any more. When the last notes rang out, rising high up in that ceiling, she sat there, eyes closed, absorbing the feeling of release, of freedom. As she sat there, her lips parted and her voice, hoarse from disuse, rose up from its cage in her throat. It was pushed by the swell of emotions and feelings she’d been holding in since her arrival at Hogwarts, rushing up out of her chest before she could push it back down. The dam broke and the flood of emotions poured forth. Her tones were quiet at first, but grew in strength as she continued on. She started to sing a lullaby that Lila had always sung to her when the storms had sent her running into their bedroom.

 

_Hush, hush, my little one_

_Be not afraid to face the night_

_It’s dark and full of shadows, yes_

_But without dark, there is no light_

_There must be both, my little one_

_Together they hold all steady_

_So hush, hush, my little one_

_You will understand when ready_

_Be not afraid my little one, do not shed one tear_

_They are entwined, each with the other_

_Like the hook who needs the eye_

_Like the child that needs the mother_

_One day you will see, my child_

_That one cannot just leave,_

_The other would have no greater purpose_

_With these thoughts, you must believe_

This song, more than anything, had taught Holly not to judge. Everyone had a purpose, even if it was not a nice one. And there was always a balance to find and keep.

Her voice retreated back into her chest and settled into silence again. Holly felt so much better now. She did not want to leave this room, but she didn’t know how long she had been in here and it wouldn’t do to be out after hours.

 _Come on Keira,_ she stretched her hand out to the little dragon still sitting on the piano, _we should go now. But don’t worry. We’ll come back soon, now that we know where to go._

Keira stretched herself out and Holly put the charms back onto her and wrapped the dragon around her neck.

As she put her hand on the door knob, Holly cast one last longing glance back into the room and sighed. _I’ll be back soon_ , she thought as she opened the door and stepped out.

As soon as the door closed, it disappeared into the wall. Holly gave a small nod to the trolls in the painting and started down the corridor. It wasn’t until she was halfway down a staircase that she realised that all the torches were lit and it was very silent.

 _Uh oh_ , she thought, _I hope that it isn’t past bedtime._

Taking extra care to be silent, Holly hurried along a corridor towards a passage that she knew would take her directly to the seventh floor. Half way to the pig statue that the passage was behind, Holly heard muffled footsteps approaching around the opposite corner. _Oh no!_ She thought, _I need to get to the statue!_ She ran silently to the statue and hid behind it. She got out her wand to open the secret passage way, but just then, someone came around to corner and into her corridor.

Holly stayed hidden behind the statue and waited for whoever it was to walk passed. As the footsteps grew closer and closer Holly held her breath. Then the footsteps stopped right in front of the statue. Her heart was pounding so loudly she was sure that whoever it was could hear her. She stood still and silent, hoping beyond hope that she wasn’t about to be found out and expelled.

Suddenly voice said “What a fitting statue for Gryffindor,” and Draco Malfoy appeared around the statue. He had a piece of parchment in his hand and was busy looking at it, so Holly was unnoticed as of yet.

“The brick marked with a feather…” he muttered as he looked up, and then stopped.

 _This is turning into quite the night,_ thought Holly as she waved embarrassingly at Malfoy. He quickly hid the parchment behind his back and looked quite flustered.

“Oh, hello Hawk… what are you doing here after hours?”

Holly raised her eyebrow at him, was he really asking her that?

Malfoy shrugged his shoulders and looked around awkwardly. Holly sighed and fiddled with her wand.

“Why do you have that out?” Malfoy asked.

Holly stared at him, then pointed her wand at the wall.

 _It sounded like he was trying to open the passage anyways_ , she thought.

Malfoy’s eyes moved to the wall then back to her.

Suddenly, a distant noise echoed down the hall and Holly stiffened and raised her wand again.

“Are you that paranoid?” Malfoy sniggered at her.

Holly shot him a glance, but nodded.

“Oh,” Malfoy looked surprised, “Well you really don’t have to be, Hogwarts is the safest place there is, except your own house I suppose.”

Holly shook her head slightly, on instinct. But Draco caught her reaction.

“What, your house isn’t safe?” he inquired.

Holly blinked but then shook her head. _No, Knockturn Alley was not safe at all,_ she thought.

“Really?” Malfoy looked curious, “Well where do you live?”

Holly lowered her head a little. Yes she was ashamed of where she lived, but she fished through her robes for a quill and parchment. After scribbling out “Knockturn Alley”, she showed the parchment to Draco.

His eyes widened when he had finished reading.

“Wait, you lived on the street?” his voice sounded scathing, but there was a hint of something else too, pity.

Holly’s head lowered even more and her face turned beet red. Without further notice, she whirled around and tapped a brick with a small indent of a phoenix feather in the bottom corner. A section of the wall slid open to reveal a passage. Without looking back at Draco, Holly hurried into the passage and up to the Gryffindor Tower.  

 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

The next evening, Holly was sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, trying to focus on reading her History of Magic book. There had been a section on the goblin wars that she was having trouble remembering. _Actually, this is all hard to remember,_ she sighed and sunk down in her chair, _History of Magic is not my strongest subject…_

She was frowning into the pages when she heard a hesitant cough from over her shoulder.

She looked up and took a quick intake of breath.

 _I forgot I was hiding from you_! Holly thought in a panic.

George Weasley had made his way over to her corner. He gestured at the unoccupied chair beside her. Holly glanced at the chair, then nervously nodded at George, who then settled down beside her.

After a few moments of silence, George cleared his throat.

“Listen,” he started, “I’m really sorry about before, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Holly kept her gaze fixed on the pages of her book.

“Please don’t be angry with me,” continued George, “You sing really beautifully, I just wanted you to know that.”

Holly kept her gaze downward, but felt a small flicker of warmth. He had said her singing was beautiful. She raised her head.

George was looking up at the ceiling, but when she moved he looked over at her.

Holly smiled gently and made a writing motion with her hands.

“Do you want something to write with?” George asked, an eager note in his voice.

Holly nodded.

“Well, I don’t have any parchment on me at the moment,” Holly’s smile faded, “But I do know a spell that could help you.” Holly’s smile lit up her face again.

“Here, you just point your wand at whatever you want to write on,” he pointed his wand at the table in front of them, “And say the spell _scribé_.”

Suddenly small glowing letters were forming on the wood. As Holly watched, they slowly spelt “like this”.

She smiled and took out her own wand. Pointing it at the table, she thought _scribé_. The wood started to glow for a second time as Holly spelled out the words: “Just don’t tell anyone, please”. George looked up at her and smiled.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he smirked.

Holly smiled her thank you, then wrote it out with the _scribé_ spell.

“No problem,” laughed George, just as his twin came up behind him.

“Hey,” Fred tapped on George’s shoulder, “I have an idea for our first Hogsmeade weekend.”

George smiled and sprang up.

“Splendid!” he said slyly.

Then he turned back to Holly.

“I bid you goodnight, Miss Hawk,” he said as he gave a small bow, then followed Fred up into the dormitories.

Holly waved and then returned to her book.

 _I wonder what a Hogsmeade weekend is?_ she thought as she traced her finger through a paragraph.


	13. Hogsmeade Announcement

The week flew by for Holly, and before she knew it, it was time for her meeting with Professor Snape about tutoring. As she made her way down to the dungeons, she started feeling nervous. _What if I’m no good at teaching, Keira,_ she thought hurriedly, _I mean, I can’t even talk to them, how will I teach?_ She felt a small claw grip her ear lobe and squeeze gently. Holly sighed, _yes it’ll be fine, I’m just getting too worked up. I already said I’d do it!_ Holly paused before the door to the potion master’s study. _Here goes nothing,_ she thought as she raised her fist and knocked.

“Enter,” she heard Professor Snape’s voice come from within.

Holly opened the door and stepped in. It was as dank and cold as the corridor outside, but filled with bottles, pickled animals and other potion ingredients piled onto shelves and tables. Professor Snape was sitting at a desk at the far end of the study. As Holly approached, he looked up from his work.

“Miss Hawk,” the professor greeted her, “You are here because I have asked the headmaster to grant you a tutoring position for students having difficulty mastering the art of potion making.”

Holly nodded, glancing down at the desk as she did so. She felt pity for whoever’s essay he was correcting; it was absolutely covered in red ink.

“Seeing as you have accepted this offer, you are to perform your tutoring duties as well as all your other school works and lessons. Is this clear?”

Holly nodded again.

“You shall have one pupil to begin with. If you do well you may have the option to have more, should you choose. You will receive an hourly wage of three sickles. ”

Holly nodded.

“Your pupil shall be Draco Malfoy. You start next week, Friday, in the potions classroom, five o’clock sharp. If you are late for any reason, you will forfeit your tutoring position immediately.”

Holly blinked, then nodded hastily.

“Good,” said Snape, “You are dismissed.”

Holly got up and made her way to the door. As she turned the knob she heard Professor Snape clear his throat. She glanced over her shoulder.

“I have high expectations for you Miss Hawk,” said Snape as he shuffled the papers on his desk, “Don’t disappoint me.”

Holly looked back at the potions master and slowly nodded, then she quickly turned the knob and left the dungeons.

As she made her way back up to the Great Hall for dinner, Holly’s head was buzzing. So she was going to tutor Draco Malfoy. _This is going to be fun_ , she thought sarcastically. _Whenever he talks to me I end up embarrassed, he asks so many questions Keira. Oh well,_ she thought. Professor Snape expected her to do well. She felt pride welling up in her chest. _Professor Snape_ thought she was going to do well. That meant a lot.

As Holly entered the Great Hall, she ran into Harry, Ron and Hermione as they left it.

“Hey Holly,” said Harry glumly, “Sorry, we were just leaving.”

Holly smiled and waved her hand, showing that she didn’t mind.

“Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with us?” Hermione suddenly spoke up, “It’s the first weekend out, and Harry can’t go.” She gestured over to a paper covered billboard hanging by the door of the Great Hall.

Holly’s eyes lit up with excitement and she nodded vigorously, then she gave Harry a questioning look. He just shrugged his shoulders and looked away grumpily.

“Great,” called Ron over his shoulder as they headed up the staircase.

But then Hermione turned back and held up her hand.

“Hey, Holly,” she said hurriedly, “You seem a bit… lonely. Is everything alright?”

Holly stopped and lifted an eyebrow.

 _Lonely?_ She wondered, _I don’t feel lonely, especially since I met you guys._

She was about to shake her head, but Hermione plowed forward.

“Well, I was thinking that maybe you should join a club, or a team or something.”

Holly blinked.

“People like you,” Hermione said, “And I’m sure they would like seeing more of you. You always shut yourself up in the dormitory or the common room.”

Holly frowned as she listened. _I guess I haven’t been very social_ , she thought, _maybe I could try looking around for a club… but can I be around so many people?_

She saw Hermione was still watching her so she slowly nodded. Hermione smiled.

“Great,” she said and turned back to join Harry and Ron, who were waiting on the staircase.

Holly stood there for a few moments, watching as the trio ascended the stairs and wondering about what had made Hermione speak out all of a sudden. _It feels strange having someone looking out for me_ , she thought as she stroked Keira.

Once they had left, Holly glanced around and went over to look at the billboard _. Now I can find out what this Hogsmeade thing is_ , she thought. There were many notices covering the board: applications for wizard chess tournaments, book clubs and many other student activities. Holly found the posting for Hogsmeade weekends. They were small field trips to a nearby village and were to start at the end of October and go until April, for students third year and up, selected weekends would be announced at later times. _Well this is lucky isn’t it_ , Holly thought, but then her face fell as she read the notice at the bottom of the poster. _Oh no, Keira_ , she thought, _we need written permission from parents._ Holly’s shoulders sagged, _well looks like I’m stuck at the castle,_ she thought sadly.

As she turned away from the billboard, another flyer caught her eye. She turned back and read the title.

“Quidditch season is almost upon us! Tryouts for each team will begin next week. No broom’s required. Come support your team!”

Holly paused as she looked over the list of people who’d already written their names on the sign-up sheet.

 _It would be really cool if I could fly,_ she thought, stroking her necklace _, and Hermione said I should join something… but I’ve never even been on a broom before._

She sighed and made her way over to the Gryffindor table, flopping down on the bench beside Oliver Wood.

“Why the long face, Hawk?” the quidditch captain asked as he watched her poke her potatoes around her plate.

Holly grabbed her wand and did a scribe spell on the table, writing out her disappointment about not being able to go to Hogsmeade.

“Oh, I’m sure McGonagall will let you go, Hawk,” reassured Wood, “She let me go even though my parents forgot to sign my permission papers.”

Holly raised her eyebrows.

“Yeah,” continued Wood, “They sent them the next week, but she still let me go. You just go talk to her…err… I mean, write to her,” he grinned.

Holly smiled and wrote on the table again: “What permission papers?”

“You were supposed to get them by post before you got here,” replied Wood, “They were just forms that your parents had to sign saying they were okay with you going.”

Holly’s face scrunched up as she thought about her letter, maybe she had lost that paper.

“Well, I hope you get that sorted out, no student should miss out on Hogsmeade,” said Wood as he rose to leave, “I need to go plan out the starting tryouts for our quidditch team. This is our year, Hawk, I can feel it!” and with that he sauntered out of the hall.

Holly stared after him, her mind momentarily returning to the quidditch tryouts. Then she pushed her plate away and made her way up to the Professors Table, where Professor McGonagall was still sitting.

“Yes, Miss Hawk?” inquired the professor as Holly approached.

Holly pointed her wand at the table beside the professor’s plate and wrote out her question about the letter of permission for going to Hogsmeade.

“I’m sorry Miss Hawk,” said Professor McGonagall sternly, “But we must have a signature of a parent or guardian before you leave the Hogwarts grounds. No exceptions.”

Holly gave her pleading look, but McGonagall shook her head again, “No exceptions.”

The girl turned to leave when Professor Dumbledore, who must have been eaves dropping, spoke up.

“You do have a guardian, I believe, Miss Hawk,” he looked at her with a twinkle in his eye.

Holly gave him a questioning look, _no I don’t have a guardian,_ she thought. But then it clicked. Ollivander! Holly beamed at Professor Dumbledore and then practically ran out of the Great Hall and all the way up to the Gryffindor common room. She searched frantically through her papers for a spare piece of parchment and quill. When she had found a piece big enough, she wrote out a plea to Ollivander, explaining the situation and asking if he could provide the much needed signature. She signed it with a flourish and sat there looking at her letter. _Yes this sounds good enough,_ she thought. She bounced off her bed and went back down through the portrait hole. _Now I need and owl,_ she thought, _there must be an owlery somewhere_. She did a point me spell and watched as her wand did a few circles in the air in front of her, before it settled on a direction.  As she made her way through the castle, Holly wondered how long it would take Ollivander to respond. The first Hogsmeade trip wasn’t until the end of October so she still had a few weeks to wait.

Even so, Holly hurried down the staircase into the Entrance Hall. She hesitated as her wand pointed towards the doors. She went over and opened them slightly. A huge gust of wind almost knocked her off her feet, but not before she got soaked by torrents of rain that splashed through the small crack in the door. Slamming the door closed again, she just stood there, drenched and embarrassed. She looked around to see if there was anyone who had seen her unfortunate predicament. There was only one person in sight, standing by the entrance to the dungeons. Judging by the way they were bent double, Holly assumed they had watched her mistake. She made to go back up the staircase, when she suddenly felt warm all over. Holly stopped and felt her robes, they were completely dry. She turned back and saw that the person who had seen her was walking towards her. As he came closer, Holly recognised the boy whom she’d run into a lot. She smiled and held out the hem of her robes to show her thanks.

“No problem, Hawk,” said the boy, still sniggering a little, “It’s the least I could do to repay you for the good laugh you just gave me.”

Holly blushed and looked down in embarrassment.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” the boy reassured her, glancing around and bringing his hand up to nervously stroke his short black hair, “It’s easy to not pay attention to the weather when you’re cooped up in the castle. Where were you going anyways?”

Holly lifted an eyebrow. _It seems that running into him has made us on speaking terms,_ she thought.

She did a scribe spell on the railing beside her _:_ “I was trying to get to the owlery. Is there only one way to get there?”

“Unfortunately yes, it is the only way,” the boy nodded his head after he finished reading, “And judging by the weather, none of those stupid school owls is going to go anywhere tonight.”

Holly’s face became downcast and she put her letter back into her pocket.

The boy saw her expression and thought for a moment.

“Well if you really want that letter sent today, I could let you borrow my owl, he’ll fly in any weather,” he muttered cautiously.

Holly’s eyes lit up and she nodded, taking the letter back out of her pocket and clenching it in her hands.

“Ha ha, okay, don’t get too excited, it’s just a letter,” the boy chuckled.

The girl smiled and she held out her letter.

“Oh, right,” he said and reached out to take it.

As he did so, his hand closed around her finger tips still clasping the letter. The boy’s eyes widened and they stood there for a few moments before Holly let go and stepped back. She pointed her wand at the railing again: “it’s for permission to go to Hosgmeade.” After a pause she added: “thank you... I’m sorry, but what’s your name?”

The reaction was sudden and quite funny. The boy immediately got very flustered and rubbed the writing out with his sleeve.

“Well, um… sorry about that, I’m Marcus Flint…thanks, I’ll… I’ll send your letter for you and… are you going on the first Hogsmeade weekend?” he stuttered, his face quite red.

Holly’s face fell a little _:_ “I already said I’d go with my friends if I can,” she wrote out.

 _It feels strange to call them my friends_ , she thought with a smile.

“Oh,” muttered Flint.

They stood there awkwardly. Holly, wanting to lighten the mood, wrote _:_ “But no one’s asked for the next one yet.”

“Oh, um… okay,” Flint stuttered again, “Did you want to go then?”

Holly nodded.

“Great, good… well, then I’ll see you then… I guess,” Flint was still as red as a tomato.

Holly smiled and then gestured up the stairs; she had to be getting back to the common room to start on her homework.

“Okay, well I’ll see you around,” Flint smiled and held up her letter, “Don’t worry, this will get to where it has to go.”

Holly made a grateful gesture and started making her way back up the stairs. Suddenly she turned and ran back down, catching Flints arm as he was turning away.

“What?” he asked.

Holly scribed out the words _:_ “it’s for the wand shop in Diagon Alley.”

“Oh, right, thanks,” said Flint, “I would have been pretty useless without that.”

Holly smiled and waved, heading back up the staircase.

 _I am definitely not used to attention from boys,_ she thought as she stroked her necklace, _I don’t know if I like it, Keira_. The dragon let out a little, muffled growl. Holly smiled, _you sound like a mother_ , she thought as she entered the portrait hole. Holly settled down in one of the empty chairs by the fire and pulled out her charms essay _. Let’s get down to business_ , she thought as she got out her quill and ink and started to write.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Marcus Flint was on cloud nine. He could not stop smiling, he had a bounce in his step and everything was better. He had a date with Holly Hawk. Sure it the second Hogsmeade trip hadn’t even been announced yet, but still, a date is a date. Flint was in the best mood of his life, and it did not go unnoticed by his peers, especially Malfoy.

“Well aren’t you a stinking ray of sunshine today,” smirked Malfoy when Flint sauntered into the Slytherin common room.

“You would be too, Malfoy,” sneered Flint, “You would be too.”

He could tell that the blond boy did not like the sound of that, which just heightened his mood even more.

“Well what’s so bloody great then?” asked Malfoy, his eyes boring into the back of Flint’s head.

“Let’s just say, that I’m actually going on a Hogsmeade weekend this year,” replied Flint, turning around and heading for the upper tables.

Malfoy thought for a moment, “Oh,” he realized, “You finally got the balls to ask Pansy again?”

Flint stopped and made a retching noise, “Don’t even talk to me about Pansy Parkinson.”

“Oh, good,” a whiny voice came from behind them, “You’re finally over me.”

Both boys turned to see Pansy Parkinson enter the common room.

“Go away, Pansy,” they said in unison.

She stuck out her lower lip in a pout.

“Good thing a girl doesn’t need guys like you to have fun,” she scoffed as she crossed over to the girls’ dormitories and slammed the door.

“So who’s your date, or are you going to be a slug and not tell me?” the tone in Malfoys’ voice said that he already knew who Flint had asked.

“I think you’ll figure it out Malfoy, since you have such an interest in her,” Flint knew this was a dead giveaway, but he was massively enjoying the look on Malfoy’s face.

Malfoy stood up and walked threateningly over the Flint.

“You wouldn’t lay a finger on a Gryffindor unless you wanted to curse them,” his voice was so low that Flint could barely hear him, “What the bloody hell are you doing?”

“Hey, take it easy there, Tiger,” Flint joked, “You’re awfully possessive of something that doesn’t belong to you.”

“I could say the same thing about you,” glared Draco, “You don’t know anything about her!”

“Oh and you do Mister High-and-mighty?” Flint rolled his eyes, “A date is usually how you try to get to know a person.”

Malfoy turned away, “I know more than you do anyways,” he muttered as he stalked off to the dormitories.

Flint watched him go. So Malfoy was doing some digging on Hawk? _Well it doesn’t matter_ , he thought happily as he sat down on the couch and pulled out a transfiguration book _, I’ll just get to know her at Hogsmeade_. Just then another thought slipped into his mind and made him close his book again. Why was she sending her letter for Hogsmeade to the wand shop? He got up quickly, almost upsetting the table, and sped to the dormitories.

“Hey, Malfoy!” he shouted, “Hold on a second.”

“I don’t want to talk to you Flint,” the blond muttered, standing with his back to him.

“Is Hawk related to Ollivander the wand maker?” Flint asked.

“Not that I know of,” said Malfoy, turning around, curious, “Why do you ask?”

“She gave me a letter to send there, a letter for permission to go to Hogsmeade,” replied Flint, “He must be her father then.”

Malfoy laughed, “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard,” he scoffed at Flint, “She doesn’t have any parents, she’s an orphan.”

“What?” Flint was gaping at Malfoy, “Then why would she send that letter to Ollivander?”

“I have no idea,” Malfoy was getting beyond annoyed now, “Maybe he lets her stay with him.”

“Stay with him? She doesn’t live in an orphanage?” Flint was hungry for all the information he could have about Holly.

“No, she lived on the street,” sighed Malfoy as he opened the door to his dormitory, “She told me she lived in Knockturn Alley.”

“Wait,” spluttered Flint, “You talked to her?”

But Malfoy had already walked through the door and ignored his last question.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Draco slammed the dormitory door so hard that it rattled on its hinges. _Damn that Flint_ , he thought, _he’s doing it deliberately now!_

Draco fell onto his bed with an exasperated sigh.

“So he has a date with Holly Hawk,” he spoke into the silence.

This was a very unpleasant thought for Draco. He had been planning on asking her to Hogsmeade since before he ran into her behind that pig statue.

He thought back to that evening. He had been on his way to the Gryffindor common room to try and sneak a letter to Holly. He had managed to snitch the password off some puny first year and had gotten the directions to the secret passage way from an acquaintance of his in Ravenclaw. Of course, once he had run into her in front of the passage, he had lost his nerve and returned to the Slytherin common room. After all he had had a lot to think about.

 _So Holly was homeless,_ Draco tried to organise his thoughts, _how on earth had she been able to survive?_ She didn’t have any parents, so she must have been all by herself. And living in Knockturn Alley? That was the sketchiest place she could have picked.

Well at least that could account for her being so paranoid all the time. _And I guess it could be why she’s good at potions_ , he thought, _if she couldn’t buy her own, she would have had to make them._

Draco wished he was good in potions, it was his lowest mark. His parents were making him get a tutor and take extra lessons. _Well there go my Friday nights_ , he sighed. He honestly didn’t think that a tutor would help; he didn’t learn well in class, how would more class help? Draco sighed, _well at least those don’t start until next week,_ he thought.

Draco rolled over onto his stomach, his thoughts drifting back to Holly. He should have slipped his date proposal into her robes when they were behind the statue. Then she would be going to Hogsmeade with him and not Flint, Draco pouted. Well at least he still knew more about her than Flint, he was proud of that and determined to keep it that way.


	14. Quidditch

The next few days passed in a haze of sunshine. Holly spent her free time exploring Hogwarts and the grounds and trying to find places to get away from the constant crowd of students. She really disliked having so many people around her all the time and was beginning to feel tension building up in her chest, making her hands shake and her movements jerky and skittish. _I need to find a place I can be alone_ , she thought nervously, _I need some fresh air and some calm._

On a sunny evening, she was walking around the grounds near the owlery when she discovered a nice patch of grass hidden behind a hill near the base of the tower. She made sure that there weren’t any students around and then let Keira out of her charms. The little dragon dropped down into the grass and slithered off to hunt insects and things. As Holly lay there dozing in the shade, she watched some birds fly overhead and listened to the breeze move through the grass. Those were sounds she hadn’t heard in a long time. There were no parks or green spaces in Diagon Alley.

Holly let her mind wander where it wanted. She thought about the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend and about her friends. She still felt a giddy sensation in her chest whenever she thought of that word. _Friends!_ She thought about her classes and tutoring. And then her thoughts drifted to Hermione’s words of encouragement.

“You should join a club or something… people like you, I’m sure they like to see more of you…”

Holly rolled onto her stomach and pouted at the grass.

 _Does tutoring count?_ She wondered _, I suppose not, since that’ll be with only one person… ugh, why did I agree to do that?!_

Her stomach wove itself into a knot as she thought of having to teach Draco Malfoy... one on one.

 _But I told the Sorting Hat that this time would be different!_ She reminded herself _, I can’t be all alone, like in Knockturn Alley. I don’t like being alone…. But alone is all I know…_

She was so used to being by herself…

Just then Keira came sliding back to her through the long grass.

 _Are you having fun?_ Holly smiled down at the little dragon as she jumped onto her lap with a cricket between her jaws.

Keira dropped the bug in front of Holly’s fingers and paraded around triumphantly.

 _Yes, you are a very good hunter_ , the girl smiled again as she scratched the metal behind Keira’s wings.

The little dragon let out a soft purr and rolled over onto her back. Holly stroked the exposed belly and curled her finger through the scaly tail.

A sudden rustle in the leaves made them both jump. But it was just a squirrel digging for a nut. The little animal froze when it felt eyes on it, and then sprang away, heading for the safety of the tower stones. Keira jumped up with a little roar and chased after the fleeing rodent.

Holly smiled as she watched Keira’s tail disappear around a bush and hoped that her little friend would be careful.

Rolling over, she sighed and closed her eyes again.

She was still lying like this when Keira returned from her unsuccessful hunting expedition. The little dragon climbed onto Holly’s chest and curled up, her body rising and falling with the girl’s breath.

Keira was about to fall asleep herself, when she heard soft footsteps coming up through the grass. She let out the smallest of roars in Holly’s ear and slithered into her pocket.

Unfortunately, Holly was still dreaming and didn’t hear her friends warning.

“Having a nice nap?” asked a voice.

Holly started up so suddenly that the charms flew out of their pouch and landed with two thuds in the grass at her feet.

She scrambled for them, but someone else’s hand got to them first.

Holly looked up and saw George Weasley standing in front of her. He was wearing quidditch apparel and had a broom and a club in one hand and was holding out her charms in the other

“Sorry if I startled you,” he apologized, placing the pendants in her hands, “But it isn’t the smartest thing to fall asleep under an owl perch.”

Holly blushed and looked around; at anything but George. She was so flustered that she didn’t even do anything with her charms. She just sat there, frozen.

George smirked and stretched out his hand, offering it to her.

“We were just on our way to the tryouts,” he said, “If you aren’t doing anything, you can come watch. Or even join in.”

 _We?_ She thought and looked around George. The rest of the Gryffindor team were walking across the lawn. She could see Harry talking with Wood and Angelina, and Katie and Alicia seemed to be arguing about something, and Fred was coming up behind George and giving her a wide smirk.

Holly shook her head violently. She had come here to be away from people!

But George kept his hand outstretched.

“You shouldn’t be squeezing those so hard,” he said, “You might hurt yourself.”

Holly blinked and looked down at her hands. Her knuckles were white from clutching her charms. She looked up to George’s face and saw that he seemed to be genuinely concerned and slowly opened her hands to reveal the two pendants. George bent down to inspect them.

“These are really pretty,” he said, “You should have a necklace for them, so you don’t lose them.”

Holly gave a small smile and then tucked them into her pouch. She wasn’t going to show Keira to anyone yet. But she did feel like she could trust George. After all, he had kept her singing a secret so far.

George smirked again as Fred came up to his shoulder.

“Well, I suppose that’ll do the trick,” he laughed.

Just then, a shout came from behind him.

“Come on, Weasleys!” Wood called, “Hop to it! We can’t lose any more light!”

George rolled his eyes and shouted back.

“Don’t get you knickers in a twist! There were only three names on the sign-up sheet!”

Fred looked down at Holly and gave her an exasperated look, “Honestly, I swear there’s nothing but quaffles and goal hoops in his head,” he said.

Holly couldn’t help but smile as the twins made fun of the quidditch captain. George waved his hand in front of her face.

“Come on,” he said, “Don’t keep us waiting.”

Holly’s expression became wary again. But then she steeled her nerves and reached out, allowing George to pull her up.

“Excellent!” the older boy smiled as she fell into step beside him and his brother.

Holly felt her fists clenching as she approached the group of quidditch players. Harry caught sight of her and waved.

“Hey, Holly,” the dark haired boy moved to her side, “Are you trying out for the team?”

Holly shook her head, but then Fred leaned over.

“Well, we have to admit, there isn’t really a point to tryouts this year,” he said, “We’ve got the best team in years, according to Lord Keeper over there.”

Wood turned around at these words.

“You better believe that!” he lifted his fist, “This is our year guys! This is my last year, we have to win the cup!”

“Yeah, yeah, your highness,” Fred rolled his eyes as the group entered the pitch, “Just get things underway so we can get back to the castle.”

Holly left the group and made her way into the stands. As she sat down, her eyes moved over the pitch and took in the hoops at either end, the colourful stands and the towers emblazoned with the different house colours. There was a small group of students already on the pitch, Holly assumed these were the people who wanted to try out for the Gryffindor team. She sat down and watched as Wood organized the participants into groups and then paired them off with different members of the team.

She knew a bit about quidditch, like the positions and the basic goal of the game. But she knew nothing of the inner workings and found it very interesting to watch the tryouts unfold.

There were five students in total. Holly watched as the entire group took off and soared up into the sky.

 _I wish I knew how to fly_ , she sighed and rested her elbows on the edge of the bleachers, _it looks like so much fun!_

She felt something moving around in her pocket and looked down to see Keira struggling to escape the folds of fabric. Holly smiled and reached down, offering her finger to the little dragon. Which she took in her claws and quickly wound around Holly’s arm and up under her robes. The girl tried not to squirm as her friend worked her way around her neck. _You were lucky that you didn’t fly out when I sat up_ , she thought as she stroked her necklace. A small bark was her only response.

Holly returned her gaze to the pitch and saw that the group had split into three small sections. Two of the students had gone off with Wood and Harry and were now floating around the hoops at the end of the pitch closest to her. _They must be trying out for keeper_ , she thought and watched as Harry and Wood took turns throwing a quaffle at each student. Holly winced as both of them failed spectacularly, letting in almost every throw, and the ones that they blocked were done with their faces. Holly quickly turned her attention to the other groups.

Two of the other students were tossing a quaffle around with Katie, Alicia and Angelina, the five of them racing around the pitch and showing that these people were at least comfortable on a broom. And the last tryout student was trying to hold up against Fred and George’s bludger attacks. _So there’s a candidate for every position except the seeker_ , Holly thought, _I guess that’s why Harry’s helping Wood._

But as the tryouts continued, Holly began to understand what Fred had meant when he said they had the best team in years. The three chasers movements were almost fluid as they dove through the air, testing the abilities of their tryout students. The quaffle bounced between them as if it wasn’t a heavy, bulky ball, but as light as a feather. Fred and George were flying circles around their trainee and Holly marveled at their ability to aim the bludgers despite the wild nature of the balls. And when Harry dove to catch the quaffle, she was amazed at how fast he moved and the agility he demonstrated in his catch. _He must be an amazing seeker,_ she thought eagerly, leaning out over the rail and getting caught up in the action happening all around her.

The tryouts were finished pretty quickly after that, however, and Holly watched as the team landed and Wood sent the tryers-out on their way. Holly could tell from their sagging shoulders that none of them had made the team.

The members of the team went off, presumably to the locker room, and the pitch was left empty. Holly shifted in her seat and then stood and descended the bleachers. She moved out onto the grass and looked around, taking in the view of the stadium from the ground. _It’s huge_ , she thought as she spun around, _I guess there has to be enough room to fly._

Her eyes then caught sight of a broom resting against one of the borders of the pitch. It must have been left by one of the other students. She glanced around, making sure the team was still in the locker room, and then stepped towards it. She felt an eagerness rising in her chest as she approached the broom. _Do I dare?_ she asked herself as she reached out and gently poked the tip of the broom. It was one of the school brooms, with an extremely worn handle and a very unkempt bundle of twigs at its end. Holly ran a single finger down the handle.

“Do you fly?” George’s voice made her jump a foot in the air and whirl around, “Woah, easy there. No need to be so skittish.”

Holly felt her face flush and she quickly looked at the ground. _I thought they were all gone_! she thought, tightly clasping her hands, _this is embarrassing_. She shook her head.

“Oh?” George lifted an eyebrow, “Do you want to know how?”

Holly’s facial expression must have betrayed her, because George nodded once and then turned around and headed back towards the locker room. Holly stood there for a few moments, unsure of what to do. She was about to turn and leave when George reappeared, holding his own broom in his hand and carrying a bag over his shoulder.

“There’s still some light left,” he motioned to the broom still leaning against the wall, “And there’s no better place to learn than on the pitch.”

Holly stood there for a moment, stunned at what was happening. Then she slowly went over and took up the broom in her hands _. Am I really going to get on this?_ she wondered nervously, feeling her palms get sweaty. She placed her hands in the groves and felt a thrill of excitement go through her.

“Hang on a minute,” George said, digging into the bag he had thrown onto the ground. He produced some elbow and knee pads and held them out to her, “These were the smallest ones I could find.”

Holly took them and strapped them on.

“Now,” continued George, “Let’s just see how confident you are.”

He placed his and Holly’s broom, side by side, on the ground.

Holly gave him a nervous glance.

“Go stick your hand over the broom and say “up”—er … think “up”. Like this.”

He held his hand out over his broom.

“Up!” he exclaimed.

His broom lifted off the ground, as if pulled by invisible strings, and landed neatly in his hand.

Holly gave George another weird look, but she walked up to her broom and held out her hand.

She turned her head back to look at him. _How was this supposed to see how confident I am_? She thought.

“Go on,” he said.

Holly shrugged her shoulders and cleared her mind. _Up!_ She thought.

The broom shot off the ground and hovered in the air beneath her splayed palm.

She flinched and shot George a worried glance. _Is this what’s supposed to happen?_ she thought.

But George smiled and nodded.

“Looks like you were meant to fly,” he laughed and put his own knee pads on, “Now just grab it and get on.”

Holly took the hovering broom and placed it between her legs. She put her hands into the worn places along the handle and gripped it tight.

“Now,” George continued as he positioned himself beside her, “It’s really all about where you think you want to go. Just give a little jump and think about flying up.”

Holly swallowed nervously and tensed _. I can do this,_ she encouraged herself. She gripped the broom handle and gave a little hop. Nothing happened. Blushing furiously, she looked back at George.

“Don’t worry about it,” he chuckled when he saw her face, “The only person I know who could do it on the first try was Harry.”

Holly cocked an eyebrow and then refocused her thoughts. _I just need to get off the ground_ , she thought and did another little jump.

This time, her feet remained in the air.

Holly smiled as she looked down and watched the grass drifting a few inches below her toes.

“That’s brilliant!” she heard George exclaim.

She turned and saw him flying alongside her.

“Just take it slow,” he said, “Now lean forward to go forward, back to go back, and all that.”

Holly let out a slow breath and tilted her body forward. She felt another thrill of excitement as the broom began moving. _This is so much fun!_ she thought. She felt Keira tighten around her neck.

“Now how about you go to the goals and back,” George pointed across the grass.

Holly nodded and focused her eyes on the target pole. She felt herself picking up speed, the wind tickled her ear.

“You’re a natural!” Holly saw George flying off to her right.

She smiled and sped up. _I’m getting the feel for it,_ she thought.

She was quickly approaching the base of the hoop and began to lean in to the turn. But she ended up hugging the turn a little too tight and the broom jerked a bit under her and she lost her balance.

Holly let out a little gasp as she was lurched back and thrown to the ground.

She landed with a thump, but wasn’t hurt and quickly sat up. She pouted after her broom, which was slowly falling to the ground a ways in front of her.

“Are you alright?” George landed lightly beside her.

Holly looked up and nodded, smiling. She stood up and brushed the grass off her robes. Then she retrieved her broom and took to the air again.

“You sure are eager,” George laughed as he rose up with her, “But it looks like you’re as good as they come. Much better than that fifth year we just tried out.”

Holly smiled as she lifted off the ground again. She was enjoying herself tremendously and was eager to continue.

She finished her route around the pole and hesitantly drew alongside George.

“Alright, then,” the twin smiled as he drifted away, “See if you can keep up. Follow me, we’ll see if you’re quidditch team material.”

He sped off along the edge of the pitch. Holly blinked and hurried her broom after him.

Together they skirted the bleachers. Holly tried her best to keep the butterflies in her stomach at bay, an action which became easier and easier as they flew along. George kept glancing over his shoulder, making sure she was still following him and Holly would smile encouragingly every time. Her heart was full of excitement and she knew it was showing in her eyes.

“You seem to be having a good time!” George called, slowing his broom to match her speed and coming alongside her.

Holly shot him a grin before urging her broom to go faster. A thrill moved down her arms as she felt the wind begin to whip through her hair.

 _This is the most amazing feeling!_ She thought as she chanced moving up over the empty seats. Her eyes began watering as a result of both the wind and the light from the setting sun.

“Hey, Holly!” she heard a voice beside her.

Turning, she briefly saw George pointing upwards before he shot off in the same direction.

Focusing her attention to her broom handle, she eased it towards her body and began a somewhat spiraling ascent.

 _It_ is _just like thinking_ , she realized as her rise became more abrupt.

She lifted her head and saw a flash of ginger whizz above her head and then stop.

Holly shakily slowed her broom and looked up. George was hovering just above her eye level and giving her a wide grin.

“Take a look,” he chuckled as he motioned below them.

Holly looked down and gave a small gasp as her hands clasped tightly around the broom handle.

They were hundreds of meters above the ground! The towers that bordered the quidditch pitch, which Holly had thought were tall enough to touch the sky, looked like arms reaching up towards her.

She swung herself around and gave George a wide smile.

“Now for the tricky bit,” the twin laughed, a mischievous glint in his eye.

Holly’s smile faltered.

Before she could react, George sped up to her and grabbed her arm.

“Let’s go!” he smirked and began racing back towards the ground, dragging Holly along with him.

A scream almost force itself out of her throat, but Holly managed to keep it down. Her eyes were watering and she couldn’t see where they were going. But she knew they were going down. Straight down.

She felt a hand push on her back, bending her forward over her broomstick until her nose was almost touching the wood.

Gripping the handle with all her strength, Holly wiped her eyes on her sleeve and looked ahead.

The ground was rushing up to meet her, but it was still a ways away.

 _We were really high up_ , she thought.

The knot in her stomach that had formed when George had dragged her down undid itself. Instead of the paralyzing fear, she felt a thrill of excitement and adrenaline rush through her arms and legs.

 _This is fun!_ She smiled as she bent further over her broom and sped through her descent.

She knew that George must be beside her, but she couldn’t see him.

A thought flitted through her mind

_How do I land?_

But as the ground approached and Holly’s speed increased, she felt her arms pulling upwards ever so slightly.

Then, all of a sudden, the ground was there, right in front of her face! She wrenched her arms up and willed to stop with all her might.

 _Stop, don’t crash, stop, stop_! Holly closed her eyes as she hoped desperately not to feel herself crunch against the ground.

There was a whooshing sound and then silence.

Holly opened her eyes and let out a gasp of relief as she found herself hovering in the air a few feet above the grass.

“That was brilliant!” she heard a thump and looked over to see George had landed and was walking over to her. But then blinked when she realized it hadn’t been George who had spoken. The rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team were hurrying over to her across the pitch. Angelina was applauding and Katie and Alicia had wide smiles on their faces. Fred gave her a wink as they reached her and Harry let out a laugh.

“You never told me you were that good,” the dark haired boy reached up and pat her on the shoulder.

Holly’s face turned quite red as she stretched out her leg. As soon as her toe touched the ground, the broom stopped its hovering and she stepped onto the lawn. George came up next to her and swept the hair out of his eyes.

“I’m impressed,” he panted, “I can’t believe that’s the first time you’ve flown! Sure you were a little shaky in the beginning, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by the way you pulled out of that dive.”

Holly blushed and fiddled with the hem of her robes.

Wood gaped at her.

“You’re ten times better than all the people who came to the tryouts!” he exclaimed, “That’s the first time you’ve flown?! I know this is sudden, but would you mind joining the team? We need good reserves and you really fit the bill.”  
Holly stared at the older boy. He was watching her eagerly, as were all the other team members. Harry gave her an encouraging nod. But Holly felt her chest tighten and her breath quicken. She felt her anti-social urge to run away again, to not have to deal with being around more people. If she joined the team, that meant she would have to come to practise!

But then she looked down at herself. She still felt little thrills moving up her arms and legs. She had tried flying for the first time, and she had loved it! She even felt a little sad when George took the broom from her hands and shouldered it.

 _I said I would take whatever challenge was presented to me_ , she reminded herself and pushed down the sick feeling in her throat.

She took a deep breath and then smiled and nodded.

“Brilliant!” Wood beamed at her, “I’ll get you a schedule, just hang on!”

The team captain quickly spun around and hurried back to the locker rooms. Harry gave Holly a smile and a wink.

“Welcome to the team,” he smirked, then he seemed to see her nervousness, “Don’t worry. Being a reserve means you’ll only have to play a game if one of us can’t.”

Holly nodded and gave him a shaky smiled. This did reassure her. She now knew that she liked flying, but the thought of being in front of so many people terrified her.

“Well, at least this evening wasn’t a total waste of time,” Angelina laughed and began moving away, “It’s good to have you on the team, Hawk!”

Holly waved as the three chasers began returning to the castle. Harry, Fred and George stayed behind and waited until Wood returned with some forms for Holly, and then the five of them began walking back to the castle.

Holly looked at the people surrounding her as they walked through the halls. All were chatting excitedly to each other about many different subjects, and though she wasn’t included in their conversations, Holly didn’t feel left out like she usually did. This time she felt happy being in the middle of a group of people. A smile grew on her lips and stayed there until she climbed into her bed.

 _What is this feeling?_ She wondered as her eyes closed, _whatever it is, I like it._


	15. Recalled Fears

Draco’s Defense against the Dark Arts class was turning out to be quite interesting. Professor Lupin had them studying boggarts. And by studying them, he meant having them face off with a real one.

 _This is hardly teaching_ , thought Draco as the professor called each student forward to challenge the boggart. Every time it was faced with someone who wasn’t part of the crowd of students, the boggart would change into whatever that person feared the most. They had already seen it change into a giant spider, a banshee and, hilariously, Professor Snape.

Draco had managed to keep at the back of the crowd and so hadn’t been called up. And he was determined to keep it that way.

He wanted a good view when Hawk had to face the boggart. He was quite interested in what her deepest fear was. But so far, she had also been able to avoid the professor’s attention. Draco watched her move through the crowd. _Wow_ , he thought, _she sure is quick_. Holly darted and weaved through the students like she was swimming through water.  She made her way to the back of the crowd and emerged right in front of Draco.

“Oh, hey, Hawk,” Draco glanced away, trying to look aloof.

When he looked back at her, she waved her hand and looked nervously over her shoulder.

“You don’t want to fight it?” Draco asked, slightly disappointed.

Holly shook her head and shuddered.

“You must really be scared of something then?” prodded Draco.

Holly nodded.

“Scared of what?” Draco was insistent.

Holly just shrugged and played with the hem of her sleeve.

Just then, Professor Lupin spotted them.

“Your turn, Miss Hawk,” called the professor.

The crowd parted and became silent. Draco felt feelings of pity rise in his chest as Holly slowly walked forward, her shoulders hunched and shaking.

The boggart was still turning in circles in the form of a disembodied hand. But as Holly approached it, it stopped running around and stayed facing her.

Holly reached the front of the crowd and stood facing the boggart hand. For a moment nothing happened. Then, the hand started to grow, and began sprouting silver hair. Holly stood there, visibly shaking, until the transformation had stopped.

Draco was very confused by what he saw. The boggart had changed into a giant silver wolf. How is _that_ what Hawk’s afraid of? He almost spluttered out loud.

However, it clearly _was_ what frightened Holly the most. She was completely petrified.

“Now just raise your wand and cast the spell: ridikulus,” said the Professor.

But Holly didn’t react, she just stood there, shaking and staring at the wolf. The wolf, however, was sniffing the air. It turned its attention to Professor Lupin, who was standing apart from the students.

Draco saw the professor visibly start, then the wolf let out a growl and sprang at him.

All of a sudden there was a loud bang and the wolf disappeared, mid-spring. In its place, there was a small puppy.

 _Aww_ , thought Draco _, It’s actually cute._ He glanced at the Professor, whom he supposed had cast the spell in defense. But Professor Lupin was staring at the puppy with a strange look on his face, his wand wasn’t even raised.

“Are you okay, Holly?” suddenly Granger rushed up to the trembling girl.

Holly was standing with her wand out and locked on the puppy that was frolicking around and chasing its own tail. But she was still shaking, and there were tears streaming down her face.

“Now, now, Miss Hawk,” the professor seemed to come to his senses, “It wasn’t real, just a boggart.”

He picked up the puppy, which growled at him, and put it back in the cupboard where he stored the boggart. Then he went over to Holly, who was silently crying onto Grangers shoulder.

“There, there,” he said, patting Holly on the back, “Miss Granger would you please escort Miss Hawk to the Hospital Wing, she will need a calming draught.”

“Yes, Professor Lupin,” Granger nodded and she began leading Holly out of the classroom.

But apparently Holly had had a greater scare than they thought. After three steps, she fainted.

“Oh my,” said Professor Lupin, “Mister Malfoy, will you please help Miss Granger to carry her to the Infirmary.”

Draco was ecstatic.

“What?!” he scoffed, “Why me? I’m sure Potter or Weasley would love to get their hands on her.”

“That was an inappropriate comment Mister Malfoy, five points from Slytherin. Now help Miss Granger or you will be seeing me in detention.”

Draco scowled and picked up Holly’s right arm and put it around his shoulder. Granger adjusted her side and they made their way out of the classroom.

“That was so rude, Malfoy!” seethed Granger, “Of course I wouldn’t expect anything higher than that from you.”

“Oh, shut it, Granger,” Draco sneered, “You know it’s true. Tell me you haven’t seen the way Wealsey gawks at her whenever she walks by him. God, he’s like that puppy back there.”

“Shut up, Malfoy!” shouted Granger.

“No need to raise your voice,” Draco muttered as they passed a classroom, “Do you want us to lose more points.”

“Who’s “us”?” Granger scoffed, “ _I_ didn’t harass Holly.”

“Whatever,” muttered Draco.

They made the rest of the way to the Hospital Wing in brooding silence.

As they entered, the bell rang for the end of class. Draco saw Granger take a worried look around and hurried forward, almost dropping Holly.

“Careful!” Draco exclaimed, “If you don’t want to miss class just go then. Don’t drop her.”

Granger stared at him with wide eyes.

 _Damn!_ thought Draco, _I’ve let some of it show._

Granger was looking at him with a weird look on her face.

“I am not about to leave her alone with you, Malfoy.”

“And what’s that supposed to mea-”

He was cut off by Madame Pompfry arriving in a bustle.

“What have we here,” she took Holly’s arm from Draco and she and Granger carried the unconscious girl over to one of the beds.

“She fainted in Defense against the Dark Arts,” explained Draco, following them, “Professor Lupin had us fighting a boggart.”

Granger gave him another weird look. He knew that he should leave now; that’s what he would do if it was anyone else who had fainted.

“Well if it was just from fright then this should do the trick,” said Madame Pompfry, holding a bottle under Holly’s nose.

Draco watched as Holly’s eyes fluttered and slowly opened.

“There,” said Madame Pompfry, “Now off to class, all of you.”

She helped Holly out of the bed and hustled them all towards the door.

“Are you feeling okay?” Granger asked Holly.

Holly nodded and gave the other girl a weak smile. Then she noticed Draco.

All of a sudden, he realised that he shouldn’t be here. He should have left before she woke up, now she knows that he helped Granger.

Holly gave him a questioning look.

“I had to help carry you up here,” he muttered, “Well, you’re fine now, so I have to get to class.”

And with that he turned and walked off towards the transfiguration classroom.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Holly stood looking after Draco as he left, then she turned and raised her eyebrows at Hermione.

“Yeah, I thought that was weird too,” the bushy haired girl frowned down the hall, “But come on, we should head to Charms.”

Holly nodded and followed after Hermione.

As they made their way through the castle, Hermione stayed close to Holly’s side.

“Are you sure you’re okay now?” she kept pestering worriedly.

Holly gave her friend a weak smile and nodded her head.

After a few silent minutes, Hermione asked Holly another question.

“So you’re scared of silver wolves?”

Holly slowed to a stop and shivered. Looking back at Hermione, she nodded, pointing her wand at the wall. The words wrote themselves across the surface _:_ “Just that one.”

“Oh,” Hermione’s brow’s lowered as she thought, “Did something happen?”

Holly sat down with her back against the wall. Hermione looked nervously down the hallway.

“We’ll be late for class,” she spluttered.

Holly smiled and motioned for her to keep going.

“I don’t want to leave you alone here,” Hermione said, still visibly aching to get to class.

Holly motioned again and scribed on the wall beside her: “I just need a little while.”

Hermione looked at her, and then nodded.

“Okay,” she said, “But if you’re not in class in fifteen minutes, I’m coming back out here.”

Holly smiled and nodded as Hermione turned and continued her way to class.

She sat there for a little while, listening. When the sounds of students moving around had disappeared and the halls were quiet, Holly unclipped Keira and put her in her lap. _Well, I haven’t seen that nightmare in a long time_ , she sighed. Keira settled herself in the folds of her robes and purred comfortingly. Holly stroked the little dragon’s head _. I used to have that nightmare every night_ , she thought.

Throughout her childhood, every night she would dream that she was tightly wrapped up in something, unable to move. She would be in someone’s arms, and from the jerky movements she could tell she was being carried. It would be dark and windy. Then, suddenly the person carrying her would stop moving. Holly would hear growling all around. The person carrying her would start screaming. Then all of a sudden, Holly would see a giant silver wolf rushing at her, its eyes shining and its teeth gleaming. She would struggle to get out of whatever was wrapped around her, but it was no use. The wolf would grab her in its teeth and drag her into the darkness. That’s usually when Holly would wake up in a cold sweat.

Holly blinked and felt Keira wrap her tail around her finger. She looked down at the little dragon _. The thing that scares me most about that wolf,_ she thought _, is that I know it was taking me away from someone very important, someone I needed. And it took me away from that person and threw me into the darkness_.

Holly shivered again.  Keira was trying to crawl up Holly’s sleeve and on to her shoulder, quite unsuccessfully. The dragons little claws couldn’t grasp onto the thick fabric and she fell with a thump back into Holly’s lap. Holly smiled and picked Keira up.

 _You are the best thing that ever happened to me,_ she hugged her little friend fiercely. _We better not keep Hermione waiting any longer_ , she thought as Keira wrapped back around her neck.  _And we’re late enough for class,_ Holly reminded herself as she got up off the floor and continued on her way to the Charms classroom.


	16. Tutoring

_History of Magic is easy compared to this!_ Holly thought miserably

She stared dully down at the jumble of sticks on the table in front of her.

 _I can’t see anything but twigs,_ she thought grumpily, _Oh wait, that kind of looks like the number four._

She scribbled her observation down and sighed. The stuffy air in Professor Trelawney’s classroom was getting to her and she rubbed her temples, trying to ignore the beginnings of a headache.

 _This is an awful way to start a Wednesday,_ she pouted.

Holly rubbed her neck and looked around at the collection of students occupying the many poufs and cushioned armchairs. Most looked as confused and frustrated as she felt, though a few were gazing at their sticks as though they expected to see the answers to all their problems in the patterns they fell into. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were engrossed in deciphering their symbols, with the help of Professor Trelawney. Harry and Ron seemed to be amusing themselves by making up their observations as fast as they could, and then looking up all the worst possible ones they could get in their books.

Holly looked back down at her table and sighed. She wished Hermione hadn’t dropped this class. She had been Holly’s partner. Now Holly had no one to help her try to find symbols in a jumble of kindling.

 _Not that Hermione was very interested in this stuff anyways_ , she thought, returning her gaze to her sticks _, I guess that looks like a ladder…_

The sound of jingling beads brought her out of her reverie as Professor Trelawney approached her table.

“Ah, my dear,” the professor began in her dreamy voice, “The seeing air must have cleared for you since the negative waves of Miss Granger are no longer clouding your aura.”

Holly shifted uncomfortably and shook her head.

 _That’s not a very nice thing to say_ , she thought.

But she held out her note book for the professor to look over.

“Ah, let us see,” picking up the usual dramatic tones she took on when reading a student’s predictions, “The number four, yes… an even number, a wholesome number.”

She glanced down at the table, her heavily lensed eyes moving over the sticks Holly had thrown.

“Oh, my dear,” Professor Trelawney pointed a long finger down at a few jumbled twigs, “You’ve missed this obvious symbol! A man.”

She paused for effect and looked at Holly, who shifted in her seat and lowered her eyes apologetically.

“Now we can see the full prediction, my dear,” the professor continued, “Four men! Yes, four men are playing an important role in your life right now. Oh… well aren’t you a busy girl.”

Holly couldn’t keep herself from blushing.

 _You can be so rude_! She thought.

Professor Trelawney seemed encouraged by her reaction and continued on.

“And here, you say a ladder… yes a way to higher places… but only one...”

Holly raised her eyebrows as she trailed off.

“Only one of these men will bring you to higher places, my dear,” the professor’s smoky voice quavered, “You must choose, it seems.”

She abruptly straightened and put Holly’s note book on the table.

“Well, I wish you luck my dear,” she said, “Trouble with men is the worst kind.”

And with that she moved across the room, making a bee line for Harry and Ron’s table.

 _Oh great_ , thought Holly, _here we go with another prediction of death for Harry._

She glanced back down at the pile of sticks on her table.

 _Troubles with men, eh?_ She thought, _well that’s interesting._

 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

“There you are, Miss Hawk.”

Holly started as she put her books and wand into her bag. She had been preparing to leave the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom after their time observing grindylows when Professor Lupin had addressed her.

“May I speak with you in my office?”

Holly paused before nodding her head.

 _Why does he want to talk to me?_ She wondered as she waved to Hermione and followed the professor. Quickly making her way up the stairs at the front of the class, Holly entered the office and took her seat in front of Professor Lupin’s desk. The man was currently looking through a pile of parchments, but he stilled his movements when she sat down.

“Do not worry,” he said comfortingly, giving her a tired glance, “I haven’t called you here because you’ve done something wrong. And this won’t take long. You’ll be off to enjoy your Friday evening straight away.”

Holly nodded her head and waited expectantly. She was curious as to what Professor Lupin had called her in here for. Her grades were good in this class, though not as high as in her herbology or potions marks.

Lupin leaned back and rested comfortably in his chair. He met her gaze and brought his hands up to his chin, tenting his fingers. Holly shifted in her seat as the silence drew out. Her eyes flicked to the clock sitting on his desk and saw that it was four thirty. She needed to be down in the potions classroom in half an hour.

“How have you been doing, Miss Hawk?” Professor Lupin’s comment drew her attention back up.

Holly blinked and nodded her head encouragingly, despite this not being quite honest. She still wasn’t used to school life. Being around so many people all the time was exhausting and she found herself missing the solitude of her shack in Knockturn Alley. But her visits to that strange room that Dumbledore had directed her to were a great help and served to ease her tension enough to continue on.

“That’s reassuring,” Professor Lupin offered her a weak smile and he leaned his elbows on the desk, “I was afraid that I may have caused you some trauma.”

Holly cocked an eyebrow and gave him a questioning look. Lupin lowered his gaze for a moment and Holly thought she saw his hand tremble.

“I apologize for making you face the boggart,” he said, lifting his eyes again, “Usually students fears are grounded in foolish childhood memories… of course some fears are rooted in more serious events. It was irresponsible of me to force you into confronting that fear.”

Holly’s face grew steadily blanker as he spoke, and she was now clenching her fists tightly around the edge of her seat. She had started having nightmares again after that Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and being reminded of it again now was not to her liking at all. Her expression must have remained cold because Professor Lupin opened a drawer and took out a chocolate frog. He reached over and held the treat out to her. Holly quickly took it and brought the chocolate to her mouth, eager to feel the warmth it offered.

“You have no obligation to tell me anything,” Lupin continued, his fingers drumming against his desk, “But I just want you to know that I’ll be here if you ever need someone who understands.”

Holly slowly chewed on the chocolate and mulled over his words. _Someone who understands?_ She thought slowly, _understands what? Has he apologized to all the students? No… There would’ve been a queue outside his office if that was the case._ Her hand fell to her lap as she finished the frog.

Lupin was watching her intently and she lowered her face just to break his gaze. She didn’t know what he was talking about, but he seemed to be offering her friendship of some kind. Sensing that this meeting was over, she stood up and bowed slightly to the professor before turning and heading for the door. Lupin didn’t stop her and she quickly retrieved her bag from her desk and left the classroom.

 _Well, I suppose it’s nice that he apologized_ , she thought, running her fingers over Keira’s body. She made her way swiftly through the halls and down into the dungeons. Now that she was getting comfortable with the layout of the castle, she was more confident in her movements and was regaining some of her old speed and agility.

Holly paused before entering the potions classroom, her hand resting on the door a she tried to slow her panting breath. _Well Keira_ , she tried to steel her nerves despite the shock they’d just been given, _I guess it’s time to see whether or not I can teach someone._ She smoothed out her robes and pushed through the door.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Draco let out a frustrated sigh and leaned back on his chair, bringing his feet up and resting them on the desk in front of him. The dim light of the dungeons lit the potions classroom with an eerie green glow, making the bottles of ingredients shimmer and shift.

 _What a waste of time_ , he thought grumpily, _I’ll give them five minutes. Then I’ll get back to the common room and see if Blaise got those charms notes I can copy…_

The classroom door suddenly clicked and opened. The sound startled him and he lowered his legs, turning to see who his supposed tutor was going to be.

“You?!” Draco couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice.

Holly Hawk smiled nervously as she dropped her bag on the desk beside him and nodded. The wood near Draco’s hand started to glow and he looked down to see words appearing on the desk.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Draco lifted his eyes to Holly again. She was standing awkwardly, fidgeting with the sleeves of her robes.

“It’s fine…” the words came out before he could stop them.

Holly’s smile widened and she nodded again, then began setting up a cauldron. The desk began glowing again and Draco read the words that scrawled themselves across it.

“Is there any particular potion you were having trouble with? We can start with that.”

Draco didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t believe his luck! He had been dreading these tutoring sessions and had even gone so far as to attempt to ask Holly to help him instead. Though he hadn’t been able to get his question out at the Three Broomsticks due to the untimely arrival of Granger and Weasley. He wasn’t stupid, he knew he needed help if he wasn’t going to fail this class (which he couldn’t do, not according to his father), and hell would freeze over before he asked Granger for any. But he had never considered the possibility that Holly would be his tutor.

“Uh… well my girding potion didn’t turn out right,” he muttered, still watching her as she took out her potions textbook, “Are you really my tutor?”

Holly sat down next to him and nodded. The table glowed. “Is that alright?”

Draco felt his body relax.

“Yeah, I guess,” he shrugged.

Holly opened her book and flipped through the pages until she came to the girding potion, then ran her hand down the list of ingredients.

“Shall we begin? We need fairy wings, doxy eggs, toasted dragonfly thoraxes and flying seahorses.” The desk glowed once again.

Draco blinked and then stood and began searching through the cupboards.

He blinked as fiery letters appeared on the drawer next to his hand.

“I’m sorry if I’m not a good tutor,” there was a pause before the sentence continued, “But I’ll try my best to help you.”

Draco finished gathering the ingredients and returned to the table.

“Well, it will be a bit strange having to read all your instructions,” he muttered as he sat down.

Holly blushed and then seemed to nod to herself. She placed the book in front of Draco and pointed her finger at the first line of instructions. His eyes widened as glowing letters appeared from under her fingertips. “It’s important to make sure you have all the ingredients and prepare them before you even light your cauldron.” Her finger then moved down the list and tapped it in several places. “The doxy eggs need to be measured out and the dragonfly thoraxes need to be toasted. You should do that first.”

Draco found himself nodding and reaching for his burner. It was exceedingly strange taking orders from a student his own age, and a Gryffindor no less. But he felt oddly at ease in the potions class at the moment. He was drawn out of these thoughts as he felt a tapping on his shoulder. Lifting his head, Draco saw Holly trying to get his attention.

“What?” he cocked an eyebrow as her hands waved towards his own. He looked down to see some dragonfly thoraxes crumble into soot between his fingers.

“Damn!” he spat, wiping his hand on his robes, “Stupid…!”

But then he felt Holly’s hand on his arm. She quickly reached over and brushed the burnt dragonflies across the table and then picked up some more. Draco watched as her fingers expertly twirled the insects’ bodies until they were a toasty gold on each side. The table beside the burner began glowing.

“You have to keep them moving or else they’ll burn. It should only take about a minute for each one.”

“Hmph,” Draco frowned and took up the remaining few dragonflies.

He proceeded to do a fairly decent job of toasting the insects and then measured out all the doxy eggs needed for the potion.

“Right,” he grunted as Holly motioned to the potions book, “Heat… then doxy eggs… then heat again…”

He set about repeating the potion he’d attempted to make earlier this week. He almost boiled his cauldron over a couple times, but Holly was quick to lower the heat and bring the potion back to safety. She also helped him stay in time, queueing him in when he took too long before adding the next ingredient. At the end of the half hour he had a nice golden, if somewhat foul smelling, girding potion to show for his efforts.

“Well,” Draco sat back and wiped his forehead, “That went… fairly well.”

He looked to his side to see Holly smiling at him and nodding. She handed him a bottle and he filled it with his potion.

As he was writing his name on the label, some other words appeared above his own.

“You’re actually a pretty good potion maker. If you just do the prep work before you start, I don’t think you’d need any more of these lessons.”

Draco lifted an eyebrow and turned to face Holly. He realized that she did have a point, but he didn’t want to give up these lessons all of a sudden. _These would be great chances to find out more about her_ , he realized.

“Well, I think at least one more would be useful,” he lowered his eyes and tapped the bottle in his hand, “Who knows what Professor Snape will have us make next class. I might need a few more of your tips.”

He caught the slight flush in Holly’s cheeks as she smiled and nodded. Just then, the door to the potions class room opened and Snape swooped through it. He paused when he saw the two students.

“Has this extra lesson proved helpful, Mister Malfoy?” the professor walked over to their table and peered into the cauldron.

Draco smirked and lifted the bottle.

“Here, Professor,” he said, “Can this potion replace the one I made earlier this week? It’s of much better quality.”

Snape took the bottle from him and held it up to the light. There was a moment of silence before he lowered it and set it on a nearby shelf.

“I see no problem with that, Mister Malfoy,” he said in a monotone voice, “I take it Miss Hawk has proved an adequate tutor?”

Draco nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said.

Snape turned and sent the girl a stare.

“Excellent,” the professor jerked his head to the door, “Now if you two are finished, please return to the dormitories.”

Draco nodded and moved to leave, but then stopped when he saw Holly start cleaning up the cauldron and turned back to help her.

“Get the burner, why don’t you?” he muttered as he lifted the cauldron before she could and carried it to the shelf.

He cast a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure there was nothing else to do and then hurried out of the potions classroom. He was feeling surprisingly tired and wanted nothing more than to go to bed. He decided to wait until tomorrow to see whether Blaise had those Charms notes or not.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Holly returned the burner to its cupboard and turned to see that Malfoy had already left the classroom.

She saw Professor Snape was still watching her and quickly packed her book away and hurried towards the door.

“I hope Mister Malfoy is not trying to passing your work off as his, Miss Hawk,” Snape’s voice made her jump.

Holly turned around, a frown on her face, and shook her head. Malfoy had done all the potion making, she had just made sure he hadn’t burnt it.

Snape lifted an eyebrow and stared at her through his greasy looking hair.

“Good,” he muttered, then turned and swept over to his desk and sat down.

Holly hesitated for a moment, but the man seemed to be done talking to her and she quickly left the dungeons.

 _Well that went better than expected_ , her fingers curled around her necklace as she made it to the Entrance Hall, _I think I can handle doing that once a week_.

She felt small jaws nip playfully at her ear lobe and smiled.

She was halfway up the stairs when a figure suddenly appeared and came rushing down to her.

“Oh Holly, there you are!” Hermione stopped a few stairs above them, panting a little, “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

Holly gave her a worried look.

“Oh it’s nothing bad,” the bushy haired girl waved her hand, “I just forgot to tell you that Professor Flitwick handed back our essays today. I picked yours up for you since you hadn’t got to class yet.”

She reached into her robes and pulled out a scroll.

Holly took the parchment.

 _But I wasn’t that late_ , she thought, a little confused, _and why did it take this long for her to remember?_

Pushing these thoughts out of her mind, she unrolled the paper, eager to see her mark.

Her face lit up as she saw a looping A written across her title.

Hermione, who had been peeking over her shoulder, let out an excited gasp.

“That’s what I got too!” she exclaimed, “It’s nice to have someone other than those two dunderheads around. We should study together!”

Holly blushed and nodded.

She’d love to study with Hermione, especially for History of Magic, which seemed to be her most challenging subject.

“Well,” said Hermione, “Shall we get back up to the Common Room?”

Holly nodded and the pair made their way up through the castle.


	17. A Clue

Remus Lupin closed the door to the headmaster’s study softly behind him. He paused and cast a tired smile at the phoenix sitting quietly on its perch.

“Hello, Fawkes,” the younger man sighed as he made his way up to the large desk occupying the far side of the room, “You’re looking well today.”

A quiet chuckle alerted Lupin to the headmaster’s presence.

“It’s unfortunate that the same cannot be said of yourself,” Dumbledore was making his way down the stairs, “Has Severus been to see you yet?”

Lupin gave the older man a tired nod.

“The after effects leave me a little sluggish,” he took his seat across from the desk, “But it’s preferable to the alternative.”

Dumbledore gave him a sympathetic look and took his own seat. The old man tented his fingers and fixed Lupin with his clear, piercing stare.

“So what brings you here on this wonderful evening?” the headmaster asked.

Lupin ran his hand over his chin before letting it fall to his knee.

“I suppose I’ll get straight to the point,” he muttered, “It concerns the new third year, Miss Hawk.”

Dumbledore’s fingers drummed against each other, but other than that he made no movement. So Lupin continued.

“Earlier this week, as you know, I had the students learn how to confront a boggart,” he said as his eyes traveled to the figures moving around in the pictures hanging on the walls around him, “And it just so happened that Miss Hawk had a rather frightening experience, the worst of all the students.”

Dumbledore nodded his head solemnly.

“I would expect the poor child to have some very troubling fears,” the headmaster stroked his beard, “What, pray tell, did her boggart become?”

Lupin lifted an eyebrow and gave Dumbledore a curious stare.

“A large, silver wolf,” his tone became cautious.

The twinkling blue eyes seemed to become sharper and Dumbledore’s hands lowered onto his desk as he leaned forward.

“A particular silver wolf?” he asked.

Lupin nodded.

“I would not have noticed anything if the creature hadn’t jumped at me,” Lupin pointed at his own chest, “A boggart may briefly act like whatever being it has become… And a werewolf can always sense the presence of one of its own.”

There was a pause as Dumbledore sat back in his chair.

“Fenrir Greyback,” the headmaster quickly came to the correct conclusion, “A man worthy of being feared.”

Lupin’s hand clenched his knee.

“She has not been bitten,” he said, relief audible in his voice, “But I’m afraid that confronting the boggart has brought her some discomfort. She seems to be having some trouble despite her calm exterior.”

The older man was silent for a few moments, his gaze floating over the walls of his office. Lupin frowned slightly as he waited for a response. He knew it was quite possible that he was overreacting. He was biased on this subject after all. But he thought the lack of concern the headmaster was showing was a little strange, even for Dumbledore.

Lupin cleared his throat, “I believe that you said she was an orphan?”

The headmaster nodded.

Lupin frowned and lowered his face. _Another one…_ he thought, _another child’s life torn apart by werewolves…_

“Do not blame yourself, Remus,” Dumbledore’s voice was quiet, “I think the circumstances in this case may not be what they seem on the surface.”

Lupin lifted his head and gave the old man a curious look. But when it became obvious that Dumbledore wasn’t going to elaborate, he sighed and stood.

“Well, I just thought you should know about it,” he said as he turned to leave, “Since you’ve asked me to keep an eye on her.”

Dumbledore nodded and watched as the younger man left his office.

 _Fenrir Greyback_ , the name fell into place and the headmaster stood, _I wonder what he’s done to become Miss Hawk’s worst fear? I suppose I should ask him._


	18. Hogsmeade

_Flint was as good as his word it seems,_ thought Holly one morning, _this came just in time_. A dark screech owl had landed in front of her, almost upsetting her plate of eggs. It stuck out its leg and Holly undid the letter. Giving the owl a piece of her bacon, she quickly wrote a thank you note to Flint and attached it to the birds’ still outstretched leg. _This is for Flint_ , she thought as she gave the bird another bit of bacon. After gobbling it up, the bird took off and soared over to the Slytherin table. Holly watched as Flint undid and read her note. He looked up and she waved to get his attention. He smiled and raised a hand in acknowledgment before returning to his breakfast.

Holly opened her letter and recognized Ollivander’s looping script giving her permission to go to Hogsmeade and telling her how honoured he felt that she considered him her guardian.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

The next morning, Holly quickly got up and met her friends in the Gryffindor Common Room, where Hermione and Ron were saying goodbye to Harry.

“There you are,” said Hermione as she noticed Holly come up.

“You guys better get going,” muttered Harry.

Holly could tell he was very upset about not being able to go. She reached out and squeezed his shoulder comfortingly.

“It’s no biggy,” said Harry as he shrugged off her hand and turned to leave.

Holly quickly scribed onto her hand and held it out so Harry could read it: “I’ll bring you back something special.”

“You don’t have to Holly,” he said, “I don’t want anything.”

“Good,” joked Ron, “More for me.”

Then he patted Harry on the back, “But seriously, you’re getting so much candy that you’ll be sick after.”

“Just have fun you guys,” called Harry as they made their way out the portrait hole.

The three of them made their way through the castle and out to the road and started on their way to Hogsmeade. Holly was so excited. Hermione and Ron were talking about all the stores and all the things to do there.

“We’ll even get to try some butterbeer, or firewhiskey!” said Ron excitedly, “I’ll try to sneak some back for Harry.”

“Don’t even think about it Ron,” scolded Hermione, “Dumbledore would never allow drinks like that in the castle, you can bring him back all the sweets you want though.”

Holly looked around as they made their way through the countryside surrounding the castle. It was a beautiful day, there was a slight breeze and she could see a flock of birds flitting through the trees that lined the road.

She turned and tugged on Hermione’s robes. “Is there a joke shop there?” She scribed onto the side of a fence.

“Yes, I believe,” Hermione answered, “I think it’s called Zonkos. Your brothers talk about it an awful lot, Ron.”

“Yeah, it’s their favourite place in Hogsmeade,” Ron nodded, “They always come back with plenty of pranks to play on me.”

Holly smiled and turned her attention back to the scenery, she had an idea of what to bring back for Harry.

Soon, they reached the gates of the little village. Holly, Ron and Hermione were carried on the crowd down the main street of Hogsmeade.

Holly looked at all the shops as they went by. There was an owlery, Zonkos Joke Shop as Ron had said, Honeydukes candy store, The Three Broomsticks, The Hog’s Head, a small pink looking café, and a shop for quills and parchment. _This place has everything_ , thought Holly.

“Let’s go down here,” Hermione called over the crowd.

The three of them extricated themselves and made their way down a small grassy path.

“Why are we going this way?” asked Ron when the noise of the crowd had died away a little.

“I just wanted to see the Shrieking Shack,” replied Hermione, “People say it’s haunted; that it actually shrieks.”

“What?” whined Ron, “And you want to get close to it? You’re absolutely mental, you are.”

“Relax, Ronald,” Hermione sighed.

Holly smiled and followed the two down the path. As they reached a small wooden fence, a cloud floated across the sun, making it feel chilly.

“That’s it?” scoffed Ron, “It’s definitely a shack.”

It was a forlorn little building sitting on the crest of a hill. Holly could see the shattered windows and broken shutters, giving the place a sad look. She shivered and turned away, it reminded her of her shop in Knockturn Alley. She started walking back up the path, scribing on the fence by Hermione as she did so: “I’ll meet you in the Three Broomsticks later.”

Hermione nodded and waved.

As Holly walked through Hogsmeade, she thought of what she could get Harry. _What I need are Fantasy Fakers,_ she thought as she opened the door of Zonko’s Joke shop.

The shelves were full to bursting with every type of prank imaginable! The corridors were so jam packed with students that Holly had to pretend she was weaving around chimneys on the rooftops of Diagon Alley just to get through. She scoured the shelves, searching for Fantasy Fakers. These pranks were very popular in Knockturn Alley. They were glasses that showed a pre-recorded scene. And they were so light that, if put on properly, the wearer would never feel the glasses and would take what they saw in the recording to be reality. A lot of thieves used Fantasy Fakers to create a diversion to make pick pocketing a little easier.

After searching many of the shelves and stalls in the store, Holly was ready to give up. She didn’t like being so close to so many people and was getting quite frustrated.

She started making her way back towards the door when she bumped into a familiar face.

“Hey, Holly,” George shouted above the noise of the crowd, “Fancy meeting you here.”

Holly waved and pointed towards the door.

“What, you leaving already?” gaped George, “Without buying anything?!”

Holly scribed that she was trying to find Fantasy Fakers on her hand and held it out to George just as Fred came up behind him, holding a bag full to bursting with all kinds of trinkets and pranks.

“Oh, brilliant!” exclaimed Fred, “Fantasy Fakers are the best. I know where old Zonko keeps them.”

He turned and moved off towards the opposite side of the room.

“We better follow him quick,” said George, grabbing her hand, “Or he’ll disappear.”

Holly let herself be dragged through the shop. When they reached the far wall, they spotted Fred at the entrance to one of the corridors. This corridor was slightly less crowded than the main room. Holly leaned up against the shelf and took a deep breath.

“You don’t like big crowds, eh?” said George, letting go of her hand.

Holly shook her head and started down the corridor towards where Fred was looking at a shelf that was just out of her reach.

“Here we are,” said the twin as he pulled a small box off the shelf and handed it to Holly, “Top of the line Fantasy Fakers.”

Holly smiled at Fred and then glanced at the shelf beside her.

There was a picture depicting a miniature brain floating in the air above a carved wooden platform. Holly stared at the picture and got another brilliant idea. She picked up a box containing the brain and platform set and turned back to the twins.

“Would you like an escort to the cashier, my dear?” said Fred with a flourish.

Holly smiled and nodded.

“Well my brother will kindly oblige as I have just spotted another damsel in distress,” and with a wink, Fred disappeared back into the crowd.

“The counter is this way,” George motioned towards the other end of the corridor.

Holly raised her eyebrow and looked back at the crowded shop center. _Wouldn’t it be that way?_ she thought. Looking back at George, she gave him a confused glance.

“This way would be less crowded,” he muttered, “I thought… you know, since you don’t like crowds and all…”

Holly was struck by Georges’ thoughtfulness towards her. She smiled warmly and nodded.

His gave her a wide grin as he turned and led her through the back corridors of the shop.

“That’s the end of the line right there,” he pointed to a row of students, “You better get in there before it gets any longer.”

Holly smiled, waved goodbye and joined the queue of students making their purchases.

She didn’t have to wait too long, and soon she was exiting the shop with her two parcels under her arm. _Now I just need a place to put it together,_ she thought, _it’s a good thing I had some of my savings left over from Diagon Alley. And now I’ll be able to save up with my tutoring job!_

Holly walked through the village until she came to the Three Broomsticks pub. _It’s a bit early_ , she thought, _but I can wait here for Ron and Hermione_.

Holly entered the pub and made her way to one of the booths and sat down. She put her two packages on the table in front of her. _First things first_ , she thought as she took the Fantasy Fakers and opened the box. She took out the small pair of glasses and punched out the two lenses.

“Well isn’t that a waste of a couple galleons,” sneered a voice from beside her.

Holly looked up to see Draco Malfoy standing at the end of her booth.

“Do you mind if I sit?” asked Draco.

Holly shook her head and gestured to the seat opposite her. Draco slid into the booth and ordered two butterbeers.

Holly felt a smirk lift her lips. It seemed that the tutoring lessons had caused some sort of friendship to form between her and Malfoy.

“So why are you ruining a perfectly good pair of Fantasy Fakers?” asked Draco, looking at the empty frames on the table and the two lenses in her hand.

Holly scribed on the table: “I’m making a present.”

“Oh,” said Draco, sounding surprised, “Well go on then, don’t let me distract you.”

Taking her wand, Holly heated the two lenses until she could mould them together into a sphere, then she cooled the glass quickly so that it hardened.

Draco was watching her with interest. He had known that she was good at magic; he just hadn’t known she was _this_ good.

Just then their drinks arrived and started pouring themselves. Draco took a large gulp of his butterbeer and focused his attention back on Holly.

Ignoring her beverage, the dark haired girl continued her present making by opening the second box. She removed the brain and the wooden platform and set the brain aside with the empty glasses frames. Then she held the glass sphere over the wooden panel. She removed her hand and the sphere stayed hovering in the air. Still concentrating quite hard, Holly tilted the platform a little. The sphere slid downwards slightly, but remained airborne. She tilted the platform a little more. This time, the sphere suddenly dropped to the table and rolled to the edge. Holly reached out her hand to grab it before it went over, but she missed. Her heart fell as she watched the sphere pause at the edge of the table, then fall towards the floor. Suddenly, Draco’s arm shot out and snatched it before it hit the ground.

“I’m a seeker, you know, on the Slytherin team,” he bragged as he handed her sphere back, “So I have to have amazing reflexes.”

Holly gave him a sly smile and placed the sphere back in its place, hovering above the platform. She pointed her wand at the space in between the sphere and the platform and closed her eyes. Draco watched her face as she did this. Her eyes were scrunched up a little out of concentration and there were a couple small wrinkles forming on her forehead. She remained like this for a few moments, nothing seemed to happen. Then suddenly, Holly opened her eyes again, picked up the platform and turned it completely upside down. Draco made to catch the sphere for the second time, but this time it didn’t fall. It stayed hovering the same distance above (in this case beneath) the platform.

“Wow, Hawk,” Draco lifted an eyebrow, “Non-verbal spells are supposed to be really hard.”

Holly blushed and waved her hand. How else was she supposed to cast spells? She took a drink of butterbeer and then put her wand up to her temple. As she lowered her wand, a thin silver string of light flowed from the tip of it. Holly waved her wand over the sphere and the string of light floated down onto the sphere. For a moment it rested there, then it seemed to melt through the glass and enter the sphere. Once inside, the string turned in on itself and then suddenly, light filled the entire sphere. The light slowly faded to reveal a series of images. Holly pushed the platform across the table so Draco could see the pictures more clearly.

As he peered into the sphere, Draco realized what he was seeing. All of the pictures were of Hogsmeade. He saw Honeydukes, Zonkos and the Three Broomsticks. There were even pictures of the Shrieking Shack and that little pink café. In each picture you could see all the students who were visiting Hogsmeade that day, they were moving around just like in wizarding pictures. _This was quite the piece of magic,_ he thought.

“This is amazing,” he said out loud.

Holly blushed again and put her creation into one of the boxes and put it on the seat beside her.

“Thank you for the butterbeer,” she scribed onto the table.

“Oh, don’t mention it,” said Draco, “I just wanted to ask if you might want to hel–”

He cut off suddenly as he looked over Holly’s shoulder and his face paled.

“Um, I have to go,” he stammered and quickly got up, took his butterbeer, and left.

Holly only had a few moments to be bewildered, however, because Hermione and Ron slid into her booth.

“Hey,” said Ron as he sat down, “Whatcha got there?”

He pointed to the boxes and the broken glasses. Holly pointed her wand at the table: “Harry’s present.”

“A floating brain?” said Hermione as she picked up the box, “Oh that is brilliant. It even has labels.”

“Not sure if its Harry’s thing though,” cautioned Ron, “And why are there broken glasses?”

Holly pointed at the brain box, then at the glasses, and then she brought both hands together.

“Oh, you made him something,” Hermione understood, “That’s wonderful!”

“Cool,” said Ron, “Can we see what it is?”

Holly took her box and shook her head. The words: “it’s a surprise” appeared on the table.

“Alright, fine then,” Ron shrugged, “Have you been to Honeydukes yet?”

When Holly shook her head Ron sprang to his feet.

“Excellent, me neither. Let’s go!”

And with that, the three friends left the Three Broomstick. The rest of the evening was spent exploring all the shops in Hogsmeade. Whenever they discovered something new, Holly would secretly add a picture to her sphere. She wanted Harry to be able to see everything she had seen _. I sure hope he likes this, Keira,_ she thought as she made her way after Hermione and Ron, joining the students walking back to the castle.


End file.
